AJ Smith

Professor Tonya Wertz-Orbaugh

UWRT 1103-005
11/12/14
Major Assignment 3: Inquiry
For this inquiry paper Im going to be diving into the depths of everything there is to
know about the Nazi concentration camps. I want to learn as much as I can about them and be
able to relay that information to an audience through my writing. The logistics of the Holocaust
have always fascinated me. Ive always wondered how the Germans were able to pull it off and
keep it a secret for so long. I hope to teach everyone something new by the time they are done
reading this paper.
In the span of 12 years, 1933 to 1945 to be exact, the Nazis constructed roughly 20,000
different camps across their occupied Europe. Their base claim for the arrests were because the
prisoners were enemies of the state (Nazi Camps). These included communists, socialists,
democrats, Gypsies, Jehovahs witnesses, and homosexuals. There were other kinds of camps
apart from the infamous death camps and concentration camps. There were many camps made
just as checkpoints and separation of prisoners. These camps were named transit camps
because prisoners were usually processed through very quickly. Train tracks went straight
through the center of these camps. They were typically the last stop before the prisoners were
sent to an extermination camp. There were also camps for prisoners of the war, conveniently
named POW camps (Nazi Camps). At the POW and the concentration camps, prisoners were
forced to complete hard labor and most died of starvation or disease. It wasnt until the German
annexation of Austria when Jews were really starting to be targeted. Adult male Jews were

arrested and processed into concentration camps in Germany. Then violent Kristallnacht (Night
of the Broken Glass) speech was given and the Nazis starting mass arresting all Jews and sending
them to concentration camps.
Drancy, a transit camp, was named after the suburb of Paris it was located in. Although
at first an internment camps for foreign Jews currently in France, it soon became the central
camp for deporting Jews to Germany and Poland for death camps. The camp was a many storied
U-shaped building with a barbed wire fenced in courtyard. Between its operating years of 19411944, roughly 70,000 Jews passed through the camp (Drancy). Although they were mostly Jews,
some of the prisoners were members of the French Resistance. There were approximately 64
transports of Jews made out of the camp. 61,000 of the prisoners were sent to the death camp
Auschwitz-Birkenau and 3,753 Jews were sent to the Sobibor death camp. Only about 2,000 of
all the prisoners sent through Drancy survived the Holocaust.
The Final Solution was what the Germans called their massive operation of putting all
effort into exterminating the Jews. The official beginning date of the Final Solution is not
known. This was the start of genocide that was a result of over a decade of discriminatory
treatment. Because of Adolf Hitlers leadership, the nation passed anti-Semantic legislation,
monetary boycotts, and violent riots in an effort for Jews to leave the country. By 1939, ghettos
were established in occupied Poland in an effort to contain the Jews (Final Solution). Jews
from Poland and the western European countries were deported to these places, where they lived
in harsh and overcrowded conditions with little food. Once the Germans invaded Soviet Russia
in 1941, the mass killings really kicked in. Mobile gas vans were implemented to enhance the
shooting operations.

In 1941, the first camp categorized as purely a death camp was built and established. It
was named Chelmno. It was started out of a giant mansion house and a big clearing in an
adjacent forest. It was the Holocausts first stationary use of the poisonous gas used for mass
killing. General Wilhelm Koppe was the highest ranking member of the SS that was in charge of
the proceedings at Chelmno. His two right hand men were Herbert Lange and Hans Bothmann
(Chelmo). The camp was one of the ones that actually accomplished its goals. Chelmno fully
eradicated 2 district populations of Jews. The Nazis did that so fast they started importing Jews
from outside sectors to be gassed. And that is the beginning of all the death camps. The rest
were modeled after Chelmno but improved for efficiency.
At first, the Nazis were using mass shootings as their ways of killing all of the Jews.
However, after many complaints about soldiers having battle fatigue and mental suffering,
mobile gassing vans were implemented to make the killings less personable (Gas Operations).
Finally SS officials figured out that the most efficient way of eradication was to build stationary
structures and have the Jews deported straight to them. It was the most cost efficient form of
killing. To make it even cheaper, the Nazis switched from producing carbon monoxide gas.
Multiple tests were made and the Zyklon B gas was found to be both the cheapest and most
effective poisonous gas to use. To fool the Jews, the guards would call the gas chambers
showers. The SS and Ukrainian guards would sometimes shout and beat the victims to raise
their arms to fit as many people into the chamber as possible. The more people there was in the
room, the quicker the Jews suffocated (Gas Chambers).
In conclusion, I believe I learned a lot from this inquiry paper. Some topics I covered I
had heard of before but not gone as in depth with them. However, the other topics were
completely new ideas to me that I had never researched before. After researching the Holocaust

in grade school for so many years I thought I knew most everything I could about it. I feel like I
have used the purpose of the inquiry paper to the fullest of my abilities to help me have a greater
understanding of a foreign topic.

Works Cited
"Chelmno." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial
Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
"Drancy." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial
Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
""Final Solution": Overview." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
"Gassing Operations." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust
Memorial Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
"Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial
Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.