Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany — The New Histories

The notorious concentration camp system was a central pillar of the Third Reich, supporting the Nazi war against political, racial and social outsiders whilst also intimidating the population at large. Established during the first months of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933, several million men, women and children of many nationalities had been incarcerated in the camps by the end of the Second World War. At least two million lost their lives.

This comprehensive volume offers the first overview of the recent scholarship that has changed the way the camps are studied over the last two decades. Written by an international team of experts, the book covers such topics as the earliest camps; social life, work and personnel in the camps; the public face of the camps; issues of gender and commemoration; and the relationship between concentration camps and the Final Solution. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the current historiography of the camps, highlighting the key conclusions that have been made, commenting on continuing areas of debate, and suggesting possible directions for future research.

Nikolaus Wachsmann is Reader in modern European history at Birkbeck College, London, where he currently directs a major research project on the history of the Nazi concentration camps. He has written widely on terror and repression in the Third Reich, including the prize-winning book Hitler’s Prisons (2004).
Jane Caplan is a Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford and a professor of modern European history. She has published extensively on the history of National Socialism, and is currently working on a study of registration, identification and recognition in Nazi Germany.

Introduction Jane Caplan and Nikolaus Wachsmann 1. The Dynamics of Destruction. The Development of the Concentration Camps, 1933–45 Nikolaus Wachsmann 2. The Concentration Camp Personnel Karin Orth 3. Social Life in an Unsocial Environment. The Inmates’ Struggle for Survival Falk Pingel 4. Gender and the Camps Jane Caplan 5. The Public Face of the Camps Karola Fings 6. Work and Extermination in the Concentration Camps Jens-Christian Wagner 7. The Holocaust and the Concentration Camps Dieter Pohl 8. The Death Marches and the Final Phase of Nazi Genocide Daniel Blatman 9. The Afterlife of the Camps Harold Marcuse. Abbreviations. Map. Composite Bibliography. Notes on Contributors