CONCENTRATION CAMP jews jewish holocaust photo

A vintage original 6x7 inch photo of holocaust victims by anonymous photographer most likely in Buchenwald

A concentration camp is a place where people who are politically against the leaders of a region, people who are of a certain race or religion, non-military prisoners of war, or other people are locked away.

The first concentration camps were used by the British in the Boer War in Africa in the 1890s. Concentration camps became famous and hated after 1936 when Nazi Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler, thought certain groups of people were "unclean" or "unpleasant". The people were sent to these camps to be gassed, shot, or sometimes worked to death.

The gas chambers reportedly killed up to 20,000 people a day, towards the end of World War II. Over half of the people who died in the Holocaust died at the concentration camps, mostly at Auschwitz.

Also, the Soviet Union had a concentration camp in Siberia. However, they were different from American and Nazi camps. One might still die there, but you would most likely be used to work first. That is called a labour camp. Anyone who was seen as a threat to the goverment was sent there.

The USA has one concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, this camp is officially a navy base, but really it is used as a prison for rebel muslims and communists, America's president has said that it is sometimes used for prisoners of war, but many human rights groups accuse America of imprisoning people from countries they are not at war with, this was proved when british prisoners were returned home in 2003. Although there are no confirmed or even alleged executions at the camp, there have been numerous Suicide attempts by prisoners. The camp works in a similar way to the Soviet Camps mentioned above, it is used for the same kinds of prisoners, those who are seen as a threat to the Republican government.