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Kingdom of Death: The Horrors and Minds Behind Nazi Camps

Explore the brutal Nazi camp system, a man-made hell embodying Nazism. Learn about the camps' evolution, dehumanization, killings, and the mentality of their creators. Witness the atrocities committed in Dachau, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz. Delve into the role of German industry in using slave labor, medical experiments, and systemization in the camps. Understand the psychological motivations of the perpetrators, from obedience to sadism, and the ideological roots of such deviance. Uncover the chilling reality of the darkest chapter in human history.

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Kingdom of Death: The Horrors and Minds Behind Nazi Camps

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  1. Nazi camp system was the embodiment of Nazism • Man-made Hell • 1st camps were makeshift, improvised (1933) • SA established them • Warehouses, cellars • Beat, tortured • political opponents Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  2. March, 1933: Dachau 1st official camp • One of last camps to be liberated • Made rules, camp system • Dehumanization, punishments, prisoner administration (kapos, etc.) Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  3. “Asocials” were first camp inmates • Kristallnachtstepped up # of Jews in camps • Jews could still be freed if they could prove they had a visa • Sept. 1, 1939: camp populations mushroomed • Sources of slave labor • 1945: ¾ million slave laborers in camps • 7 million slaves not in camps Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  4. Chelmno (12/41): 1st camp constructed as part of Final Solution • Gas vans (carbon monoxide [CO]) • OdiloGlobocnik, 1941, ordered to kill all Jews in the General Government (Poland) • Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka then constructed • Majdanek, Auschwitz also equipped to kill • Chelmno: almost 350,000 Jews killed • Belzec: 500-600,000 Jews killed • Sobibor: 250,000 Jews killed • Treblinka: 800-900,000 Jews killed • Majdanek: around 350,000 Jews killed • Auschwitz: 1.1 million-1.3 million Jews killed • + 70-80,000 Poles, several 1,000 gypsies, Soviets Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  5. Gas van used at Chelmno Train station where Jews and Roma arrived at Belzec Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  6. Sobibor Jews arrive at Treblinka by train Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  7. The crematoria at Majdanek The gate to Auschwitz II - Birkenau Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  8. Auschwitz I: SS barracks, Block #11 (prison), #10 (medical experiments) • Auschwitz II/Birkenau: killing facility, barracks for slave labor • Auschwitz III/Buna, Monowitz: huge synthetic rubber plant • Run by I.G. Farben (German industry) • 45 sub-camps around, all administered from Auschwitz Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  9. 10,000 camps total • Killing, transient, POW, slave labor, etc. Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  10. German industry heavily involved in the camps for slave labor • Paid SS a per diem for each slave • Some firms had plants in the camps • Bayerpaid for female slaves on which to run experiments Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  11. Medical experiments in camps • Military reasons – saltwater intake, temperature extremes, injections with various germs/diseases • Racial reasons – how to produce twins (Josef Mengele [the Angel of Death]), produce dominant traits, sterilization experiments • No care was taken to render the experiments medically valid • Warsaw ghetto: Jewish doctors experimented on themselves on the effects of starvation and malnutrition Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  12. Systemization in the camps • Flow-charts to track who and what went where • All income went into SS bank accounts • Contraband from Jews (jewelry, alarm clocks, clothing, shavers, etc.) were sold to soldiers • All income came back to SS • Thousands of civilians had to be involved in this as bystanders and collaborators • Denial: “I don’t want to know where it came from…” Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  13. Motivation of the perpetrators • French proverbs: • “To understand all is to forgive all” • “He who excuses himself, accuses himself” • Schools of thinking: Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  14. Situationalist: obedience to authority • Certain mechanisms take over (autocracy, order) • Milgramexperiments in the 1950’s-‘60’s • In almost every case of obedience…there is always some justification on the part of the “doer” to a cause • In Milgram’s experiments worldwide, 600 of 1000 administered a “lethal” dose of electricity • Conformity to group pressure • Soldiers kill/die for their buddies Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  15. Yale University psychology professor Dr. Stanley Milgram Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  16. Dispositionalist: personality issues • Auschwitz guards had specialties in cruelty • Sadistic, psychopathic disposition • Interactionalist: in a situation of radical evil, a human being will develop a “second self” in order to function in the evil environment • Camp doctors – the “Auschwitz self” • Psychic numbing Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

  17. Idealistic/Ideological: so-infected with antisemitism • Existentialist: participation in this vast undertaking helped give meaning to the perpetrator’s life • Human passion: sadism is a form of malignant aggression • Can be brought out, cultivated • Need to show control • Greed was everywhere in the Holocaust • Hate(not completely conditioned by ideology) • Revenge: for Allied bombs on German cities, etc. • Ambition, careerism: desire to get ahead Unit 6: Kingdom of Death and the Mentality of Its Creators

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