Concentration Camps (AKA "Detention Centers") Are Not Churches

Concentration camps, euphemistically referred to as “detention centers,” are intrinsically dehumanizing. Without oversight, they create conditions that are not only traumatic but also life threatening.

Just as the Nazis modeled their racial laws somewhat after the Jim Crow Laws in the United States- somewhat because the Nazis felt the Jim Crow Laws were too extreme! - the Nazi concentration camps were modeled after the British detention centers that were created during the British colonial/imperialist period. While the history of the Nazi concentration camps has been thoroughly documented, a number of popular misunderstandings have emerged that need to be addressed as the present administration is attempting to draw upon and follow the British/Nazi precedents and establish the American version of these same concentration camps. If the tragic lessons of history are ignored, the tragedies of the past are certain to repeat themselves.

Misunderstanding One: the Nazi concentration camps were run by the most sadistic and criminal elements of German society! While it is true that there were some sadistic and criminal elements running the camps, MOST of the workers overseeing the operation of the camps were quite normal German citizens. Given the overarching attitude that the inmates were less than human (human vermin) or illegal enemies of the Nazi regime (communists and socialists), they were not accorded any dignity or compassion. To effectively run the camps and maintain control, it was necessary for ordinary German workers to become inured and indifferent to the actual needs of the inmates. Moreover, strictly adhering to the Nazi/fascist ideology insured that questioning any act of cruelty directed to an inmate would be met with a blind eye. It was only a matter of time that cruelty would become the accepted norm for treating the inmates and no one dared to think otherwise.

Misunderstanding Two: All the inmates understood German! Differences in language create dissonance and fear. With the construction of the concentration camps in Eastern Europe, an influx of ethnic prisoners who did not speak or understand German found themselves in a particularly dangerous situation. Not following orders spoken in a language one did not understand would be quickly met with physical punishment and even death. Survival sometimes meant befriending an inmate who understood and could speak a little German so as to translate “orders” especially to newly arriving deportees.

Misunderstanding Three: The German population was unaware of what was happening in the concentration camps because there was no third-party oversight! Not only was it common knowledge of what was happening in the Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe, the rounding up and deportation of the targeted groups was done in plain sight. Simply turning a blind eye and remaining silent was preferrable in order to avoid suspicion and even arrest for speaking out openly against the heavy-handed, thuggish tactics the Nazis were employing.

Misunderstanding Four: The inmates of the Nazi concentration camps were killed by shooting, electrocution (touching the electrified fence), hanging, and in the final analysis, gassed. While all those horrific things happened, starvation and most especially sickness and disease accounted for untold casualties and made every concentration camp a death camp to be distinguished from the specifically extermination camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, etc.

In sum, the hidden nature of evil is that is always perceived as something good. Good: The Nazis were creating a great nation by ridding itself of all its perceived enemies. To that end, the construction of concentration camps was necessary to carry out the Nazi political agenda. Good: The Nazi war campaign in the East was to create living space for its people; the Slavic people, after all, were subhuman and became slave workers in the camps. Good: The killing of the Jews was to rid the world of the so-called Jewish Conspiracy that was corrupting not only the world order but especially “poisoning” German blood. Good: Cruelty in carrying out the regime’s political agenda was touted as a strong “moral virtue” and not a vice.

For a more nuanced understanding of the concentration camp phenomenon, I would direct you to Nikolaus Wachsmann’s magisterial account, KL - A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps.

Rev. Daniel Pure, PCUSA