Concentration camps during the HolocaustThe Holocaust was a brutal, sickening and unforgiving period of history. The Holocaust refers to "the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators." (ushmm.org) The Nazis came to power in January 1933 in Germany. They assumed that Germans were "ethnically larger" and that Jews considered "mediocre" were a threat and problem to German society. The Germans not only targeted Jews, but also Gypsies, Slavs, Russians, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. If these people were captured but not yet killed, they were sent to concentration camps. Concentration camps were introduced as harsh and impure living camps and are a very important feature of the regime. After Adolf Hitler became leader in January 1933, he developed the first concentration camps in Germany (ushmm.org). At first, the Nazis, local police, etc. captured anyone who criticized the Nazis. These people included church leaders, communists, and socialists. The Nazis threw them into local prisons to keep them locked up. The Nazis soon realized that this arrangement did not work very well. They proposed a new resolution that involved building large, strong-minded camps to hold the thousands of prisoners. Soon the prisoners were grouped largely into one area and the Nazis called it the first “concentration camps” (theholocaustexplained.org). Living conditions in the camps were unbearable (fcit.usf.edu). Eventually, the Nazis expanded throughout Europe, building around 20,000 more camps, but of all types. These included more conc...... middle of paper...... the children had survived. Terezin was very different from Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald. Terezin was not a concentration camp. It was a place where people went to avoid worse luck. Families and elderly people were mostly transported to Terezin (jewishvirtuallibrary.org). In conclusion, the Holocaust was a brutal, sickening and unforgiving period of history. The Holocaust refers to “the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators” (ushmm.org). When Adolf Hitler came to power, he created the first concentration camp in Germany. Concentration camps were built to hold prisoners, but not in a nice, friendly way. Concentration camps were developed to be brutal, miserable and filthy places. Millions and millions of people in the 1930s and beyond died in these horrific camps..