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Concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps ("Konzentrationslager" or "KZ") throughout the territories it controlled before and during World War II.

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All Content on this topic

Margot Friedländer

Holocaust survivor returns - Margot Friedländer in Berlin

German Jewish Margot Friedländer nee Bendheim survived the horrors of Nazi Germany.
HistoryApril 9, 202442:36 min
Men stand around canoes during Robert Koch's Africa expedition in in 1906

How distrust in Western vaccines was born during colonialism

Many unsafe vaccinations were tested on African subjects without their knowledge or consent during the colonial era.
HistoryMarch 18, 2024
Doku KW 04 Shlomo

The Goldsmith and the Nazi

An October day in 1980, near Sao Paulo. A man lies dead in his bathroom. It is Gustav Wagner, the "Beast of Sobibor".
HistoryJanuary 27, 202486:06 min
Carmen Melanie Spitta

My family was murdered - Sinti and the Holocaust

Carmen Melanie Spitta wants to keep the memory of her family, who were murdered by the Nazis, alive.
HistoryJanuary 26, 202412:36 min
Former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin speaks into a DW microphone in Auschwitz

Holocaust remembrance vital as antisemitism rises in Europe

Nearly eight decades after the end of World War II, antisemitism in Europe is on the rise again.
HistoryJanuary 23, 202402:47 min
The interior of the state court in Hanau

Germany charges 98-year-old Nazi guard for murder complicity

The German man worked as a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin.
Law and JusticeSeptember 1, 2023
The gate of the former Dachau concentration camp with the words 'Arbeit macht frei'

Dachau: 90 years on, the warning remains

In 1933, the Nazis set up one of the first concentration camps in Dachau, near Munich — the start of a system of terror.
HistoryMarch 21, 2023
A person walks at a memorial and museum are set up at the site of the former Nazi Ravensbrück concentration camp

Germany: Ex-Nazi camp guard dies, ending case against him

The 99-year-old was under investigation over suspected complicity in the murders that took place at the Ravensbrück Nazi
Law and JusticeFebruary 28, 2023
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (l) and Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin, lay wreaths at the memorial for homosexuals persecuted under National Socialism in Tiergarten

LGBTQ People: Germany's long-forgotten victims of the Nazis

Gays, lesbians, and other LGBTQ minorities are in focus at this year's commemoration of those persecuted by the Nazis.
HistoryJanuary 27, 2023
Hand holding to smart phone with screen that treads Tiktok.

Holocaust remembrance on TikTok

How Holocaust survivors and concentration camp memorial sites are reaching young users on TikTok in 30 seconds.
CultureJanuary 26, 2023
Former Nazi death camp secretary Irmgard F. with face mask

Germany: Former Nazi death camp secretary appeals conviction

One of the last verdicts concerning Nazi crimes is being appealed by a 97-year-old woman.
CrimeDecember 28, 2022
Volos 2018 | Luisa von Richthofen

Opinion: Historic verdict in one of the last Nazi trials

Luisa von Richthofen
Luisa von Richthofen, who followed the trial for DW, sees justice despite the lenient sentence.
PoliticsDecember 20, 2022
Former concentration camp inmate Jack Terry stands at the concentration camp memorial in Flossenbürg on Sunday (22.07.2012).

Former WWII prisoner Jack Terry dies at 92

Jack Terry was the spokesman of the surviving inmates of the Flossenbürg Nazi concentration camp for many years.
PoliticsNovember 3, 2022
Buchenwald was the first concentration camp to be liberated by a Western Allied army,

Swastikas sprayed on signs at Buchenwald camp memorial

Authorities are looking into an incident in which swastikas were spray painted at a former Nazi concentration camp.
CultureOctober 28, 2022
Holocaust survivor Arie Pinsker points to shoes at the Auschwitz memorial

Auschwitz: Saving the soles of lives lost

New efforts have been launched to preserve the shoes of thousands of the youngest Holocaust victims.
SocietyOctober 2, 2022
An information board at the gate of Buchenwald which is now a memorial for people who died in the former Nazi concentration camp

Vandals chop down trees dedicated to Holocaust victims

Administrators at the site, once a notorious symbol of the Nazi concentration camps, called it a "deliberate attack."
CrimeJuly 21, 2022
A 101-year-old former guard of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp appears in the courtroom, his face covered with a blue folder

Ex-Nazi camp guard sentenced to 5 years in jail

The 101-year-old pensioner is the oldest person so far to be charged with war crimes of the Holocaust.
CrimeJune 28, 2022
Slovenien writer Boris Pahor wearing a cap and glasses.

Holocaust chronicler Boris Pahor dies at 108

The Slovenian novelist and concentration camp survivor bore witness to the atrocities of the 20th century.
HistoryMay 31, 2022
A portrait of Stepan Bandera

Stepan Bandera: Hero or Nazi collaborator?

The myth surrounding Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera is at the heart of Russia's assault on Ukraine. Who was he?
PoliticsMay 22, 2022
Survivor Naftali Fuerst from Slovakia at the entrance gate of the Nazi concentration camp 'Buchenwald' with the inscription 'Jedem das Seine' (To Each His Own) after a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, Germany,

Survivors mark 77th anniversary of Buchenwald liberation

Some of those who survived Buchenwald now face a second war in Ukraine, forcing Germany to bar Russian delegates.
ConflictsApril 11, 2022
Inge Auerbacher hugs Frank-Walter Steinmeier

German Bundestag commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day

Germany’s Bundestag has been remembering the victims of the Nazi regime who died in the Holocaust.
HistoryJanuary 27, 2022
A guard tower at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz's harrowing history

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army liberated the prisoners in Auschwitz. What they found was unfathomable.
HistoryJanuary 27, 2022
Two statues of thin figures stand next to the water.

'Never Again': Memorials of the Holocaust

Memorials across Germany ensure the millions of victims of World War II are not forgotten.
TravelJanuary 27, 202211 images
Hardy Krüger

German actor Hardy Krüger dies at 93

First a student at an elite Nazi school, actor Hardy Krüger turned into an outspoken opponent of far-right violence.
FilmJanuary 20, 2022
Georg Stefan Troller

Writer and journalist Georg Stefan Troller at 100

The Austrian Jew escaped the Nazis and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp before becoming a famous reporter.
CultureDecember 10, 2021
Defendant Josef S.

Accused Nazi death-camp guard claims he was a farmer

The 101-year-old defendant said he worked at a small factory and then a farm during World War II.
CrimeDecember 2, 2021
Prisoners stand in lines outdoors in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, December 19, 1938

100-year-old Nazi concentration camp guard goes on trial

A former guard from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp is charged with complicity in more than 3,500 murder cases.
HistoryOctober 7, 2021
People are visiting the museum in former Nazi Death Camp Stutthof

German court releases ex-Nazi camp secretary pending trial

The 96-year-old woman, who was "on the run" for several hours last week, has been released.
CrimeOctober 5, 2021
Towers at the former Nazi camp Stutthof

Nazi camp secretary caught after fleeing trial

Scheduled to stand trial for crimes as a secretary at a Nazi concentration camp, the 96-year-old had gone into hiding.
PoliticsOctober 2, 2021
The German-Sinti Bamberger family sitting for a photo, Margarethe sits in the front row on the left

Europe remembers Sinti, Roma murdered in WWII

On August 2, 1944, 4,300 Sinti and Roma were killed in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
HistoryAugust 2, 2021
Sachsenhausen

Trial ordered for 100-year-old death camp guard

The accused worked as a prison guard at Sachsenhausen from 1942 to 1945, according to German media reports.
CrimeAugust 1, 2021
Stutthof concentration camp in Poland

German court to try 96-year-old for Nazi murders

The nonagenarian is accused of being an accessory to the murder of more than 11,000 people.
CrimeJuly 16, 2021
Lit candelabrum

People, pictures, places: German Jews across the centuries

An exhibition in Cologne about 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany showcases personal stories.
CultureJuly 3, 2021
Russian soldiers holding the skulls of murdered prisoners

40 years on from the Majdanek trial verdict

One of the biggest trials in post-war Germany dealing with Nazi-era crimes, it put a spotlight on female perpetrators.
HistoryJune 29, 2021
Interior of Dresden Barracks, the largest and most damaged building in the Main Fortress of Theresienstadt

Holocaust remembrance site in Terezin is crumbling

Under the Nazis, Terezin was a Jewish ghetto. Today, there is much to be done to keep the memory of the town alive.
CultureMay 7, 2021
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his wife Elke Büdenbender and Thuringia's State Premier Bodo Ramelow attend commemorations at the former death camp of Buchenwald

Germany remembers Buchenwald liberation

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the thousands killed by the Nazis at the Buchenwald death camp.
PoliticsApril 11, 2021
Barbed wire around Neuengamme campsite

How the US and Germany deal with Holocaust perpetrators

How could it be that accused Nazi guard Friedrich Karl B. will now live out the rest of his days in Germany in peace?
CrimeApril 3, 2021
A protester holds up a portrait of Alexei Navalny

Navalny describes prison as 'concentration camp'

The Kremlin critic joked that he had no idea it was possible to construct such a facility so close to Moscow.
PoliticsMarch 16, 2021
Rembert Boese

Shining a light on forgotten Auschwitz victims

Nazi prisoners were marched past Rembert Boese's home in 1945. Today, he wants the victims to be remembered properly.
HistoryFebruary 22, 2021
German Nazi concentration and extermination camp (file image from January 26, 2019).

US deports former Nazi guard to Germany

The 95-year-old man has arrived at Frankfurt Airport. He confessed to serving as a concentration camp guard in 1945.
Law and JusticeFebruary 20, 2021
A general view of a gas chamber at the former Nazi concentration camp Stutthof

Germany charges Nazi camp secretary

The woman is accused of complicity in the murders of 10,000 people at a Nazi concentration camp.
Law and JusticeFebruary 5, 2021
A flower is seen next to the word 'Auschwitz' at a memorial on a platform at the Berlin-Grunewald train station

Auschwitz survivors urge world: 'Do not let us down'

Holocaust survivors and officials marked the 76th liberation of Auschwitz with a somber ceremony online.
HistoryJanuary 27, 2021
#everynamecounts Arolsen Archive | names and descriptions projected on the wall of a building

Holocaust Memorial Day: Every name counts

The names of Holocaust victims will be projected publicly in Berlin, and shared with the world via livestream.
CultureJanuary 27, 2021
Deutschland Von Deutsch-Ostafrika nach Sachsenhausen – Eine Lebensgeschichte Mahjub bin Adam Mohamed

The Swahili teacher killed in a concentration camp

The case of Mahjub bin Adam Mohamed, a Black man and early victim of the Nazis, is also about Germany's colonial past.
CultureDecember 11, 2020
A view of the Nuremberg Trial courtroom | Anklagebank

Nuremberg Trials: Nazis facing judgment

Seventy-five years ago, on November 20, 1945, war crimes hearings in Nuremberg laid bare the Nazi regime of terror.
HistoryNovember 20, 202010 images
Gedenkstelle Auschwitz Stammlager

'Disturbing' lack of Holocaust knowledge in US

A new study says roughly 11% of young adult respondents believe that Jews caused the Holocaust.
HistorySeptember 17, 2020
Himmler visits the Ravensbrück all-women concentration camp

Female guards at the Ravensbrück concentration camp

An exhibition in the memorial at Ravensbrück offers a disturbing look at life under the Nazis in the all-female camp.
HistoryAugust 11, 2020
The spa home Mövennest on the island of Borkum

Nazi war criminals may have run children's homes for decades

Millions of West German children were sent to brutal "spa" homes that left them traumatized, according to a new report.
HistoryAugust 10, 2020
Romani Rose

Xenophobia, nationalism can only be defeated together

Romani Rose
Sunday is Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. But remembering isn't enough — we must decisively combat racism and nationalism.
SocietyAugust 2, 2020
Bruno D. in court

Ex-SS guard convicted in Germany's 'last' Holocaust trial

A 93-year-old former guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, has been sentenced to a suspended sentence of two years.
Law and JusticeJuly 23, 2020