View source for German camps in occupied Poland during World War II

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{{Infobox
|name = German camps in occupied Poland during World War II
|title = Nazi German camps in occupied Poland during World War II
|image={{Photomontage
  |color=#ffffff
  | photo1a = PLASZOW-German concentration camp near Krakow PL.jpg
  | photo2a = Birkenau Inmates heading towards the barracks in the camp.jpg
  | photo2b = Krychów forced labour camp 1940 (Krowie Bagno).jpg
  | photo3a = Majdanek (June 24, 1944).jpg
  | photo3b = KZSHOF.jpg
  | photo4a = WW2-Holocaust-Poland.PNG
  | spacing = 2
  | border = 0
  | size = 300
}}<span style="font-size: 1em">Left to right (top to bottom): Concentration camp in [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp|Płaszów]] near [[Kraków]], built by Nazi Germany in 1942{{•}}Inmates of [[Birkenau]] returning to barracks, 1944{{•}}[[Krychów#World War II|Slave labour]] for the [[Generalplan Ost]], making [[Lebensraum]] latifundia{{•}}[[Majdanek concentration camp]] (June 24, 1944){{•}}Death gate at [[Stutthof concentration camp]]{{•}}Map of [[Nazi extermination camps]] in occupied Poland, marked with white skulls in black squares</span>
|headerstyle=background:#ddf;
|header1=Operation
|label2=Period
|data2=September 1939 – April 1945
|label3=Location
|data3=[[Occupied Poland]]
|header4=Prisoners
|label5=Total
|data5=5 million Polish citizens (including [[Polish Jews]] and Gypsies)<ref name="bibula-13530">{{cite web |url=http://www.bibula.com/?p=13530 |title=Straty ludności cywilnej |trans-title=Polish civilian losses |publisher=Bibula – pismo niezalezne |work=Straty ludzkie poniesione przez Polskę w latach 1939–1945 |date=31 August 2009 | author=Dr Waldemar Grabowski, [[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]] Centrala |quote=Według ustaleń Czesława Łuczaka, do wszelkiego rodzaju obozów odosobnienia deportowano ponad 5 mln obywateli polskich (łącznie z Żydami i Cyganami). Z liczby tej zginęło ponad 3 miliony. ''Translation:'' According to postwar research by [[Czesław Łuczak]] over 5 million [[Polish people|Polish nationals]] (including [[Polish Jews]] and Roma) were deported to German camps, of whom over 3 million prisoners perished. |access-date=9 February 2016}}</ref> and millions of other, mostly European, citizens<!--need estimate for non Polish citizens-->
|label6=Dead victims
|data6=
}}
The '''German camps in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–45)|occupied Poland]] during World War II''' were built by [[Nazi Germany|the Nazis]] between 1939 and 1945 throughout the territory of the [[Second Polish Republic|Polish Republic]], both in the areas [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexed]] in 1939, and in the [[General Government]] formed by Nazi Germany in the central part of the country ''(see map)''. After the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union, a much greater system of camps was established, including the world's only industrial [[extermination camp]]s constructed specifically to carry out the [[Final Solution|"Final Solution to the Jewish Question"]].

German-occupied Poland contained 457 camp complexes. Some of the major [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration]] and [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|slave labour]] camps consisted of dozens of subsidiary camps scattered over a broad area. At the [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]], the [[List of subcamps of Gross-Rosen|number of subcamps was 97]].<ref name="gross-rosen-filie">{{cite web |url=http://www.gross-rosen.eu/historia-kl-gross-rosen/filie-obozu-gross-rosen/ |title=Filie obozu Gross-Rosen |publisher=Gross-Rosen Museum (Muzeum Gross Rosen w Rogoźnicy) |access-date=15 May 2015 |trans-title=Subcamps of Gross-Rosen, interactive}}</ref> The [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz camp complex]] (Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and [[Monowitz concentration camp|Auschwitz III-Monowitz]]) had 48 [[List of subcamps of Auschwitz|satellite camps]]; their detailed descriptions are provided by the [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]].<ref name="auschwitz-3">[http://pl.auschwitz.org.pl/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=42  List of Subcamps of KL Auschwitz (Podobozy KL Auschwitz).] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012030036/http://pl.auschwitz.org.pl/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=42 |date=2011-10-12 }} The [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]] in [[Oświęcim]], [[Poland]] (Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau w Oświęcimiu), 1999–2010 {{in lang|pl}}</ref><ref name="gcpolint">{{citation |url=http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/gcpolint.htm |title=German Crimes in Poland, Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Volume I, Warsaw 1946 |year=2000 |work=Background and Introduction, Howard Fertig, New York, 1982 |author=Compiled by Dr. Stuart D. Stein |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622054956/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/gcpolint.htm |archive-date=2011-06-22 }}</ref> [[Stutthof concentration camp]] had [[Stutthof concentration camp#Stutthof sub camps|40 subcamps]] officially and as many as 105 subcamps in operation,<ref name="ushmm1" /> some as far as [[Elbląg]], [[Bydgoszcz]] and [[Toruń]], at a distance of {{convert|200|km}} from the main camp.<ref name="gen.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishgen.org/Forgottencamps/Camps/StutthofEng.html |title=Forgotten Camps: Stutthof |publisher=JewishGen |access-date=15 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="subcamps40">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Stutthof (Sztutowo): Full Listing of Camps, Poland |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stutthof.html |encyclopedia=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=15 May 2015 |quote=''Source:'' "Atlas of the Holocaust" by Martin Gilbert (1982).}}</ref> The camp system was one of the key instruments of terror, while at the same time providing necessary labour for the German war economy.

The camp system was one of the key instruments of terror, while at the same time providing necessary labour for the German war economy. Historians estimate that some 5 million Polish citizens (including [[Polish Jews]]) went through them.<ref name="bibula-13530" /> Impartial scientific research into prisoner statistics became possible only after the collapse of the [[Soviet Empire]] in 1989, because in the preceding decades all inhabitants of the [[Kresy|eastern half]] of the country [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|annexed by the USSR in 1939]] were described as citizens of the Soviet Union in the official communist statistics.<ref name="bibula-13530" />

== Overview ==
Before the September 1939 [[Invasion of Poland]], the concentration camps built in [[Nazi Germany]] held mainly German Jews and political enemies of the Nazi regime.<ref name="gcpolint" /> Everything changed dramatically with the onset of World War II. The [[Nazi concentration camps]] (''Konzentrationslager'', KL or KZ) set up across the entire [[German-occupied Europe]] were redesigned to exploit the labor of foreign captives and prisoners of war at high mortality rate for maximum profit. Millions of ordinary people [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|were enslaved]] as part of the German war effort.<ref name="UH">{{cite news|author=Ulrich Herbert |author-link=Ulrich Herbert |url=http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/slave_labour13.htm |title=The Army of Millions of the Modern Slave State: Deported, used, forgotten: Who were the forced workers of the Third Reich, and what fate awaited them? |newspaper=[[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]] |date=16 March 1999 |access-date=January 6, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604024311/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/slave_labour13.htm |archive-date=June 4, 2011 }}</ref> According to research by the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]],<ref name="Helman" /> Nazi Germany created some 42,500 camps and ghettos in which an estimated 15 to 20 million people were imprisoned. All types of confinement were used as a source of labour supply.<ref name="Helman">{{cite book |work=Jews and Their Foodways |author=Anat Helman |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-026542-7 |pages=251–252 |title=Exploring the Universe of Camps and Ghettos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GrGYCgAAQBAJ&q=Geoffrey+Megargee&pg=PA251 |chapter=''The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos'' by [[Geoffrey P. Megargee]]}}</ref>

Between 1941 and 1943, the [[Final Solution|concerted effort to destroy the European Jews entirely]] led to the creation of [[extermination camp]]s by the SS for the sole purpose of mass murder in gas chambers. During the Holocaust, many transit camps as well as newly formed [[Jewish ghettos across German occupied Poland]] served as collection points for deportation under the guise of "resettlement". The unsuspecting victims used to mistakenly perceive their own deportations as work summons.<ref name="tnn.pl">{{cite web |url=http://www.tnn.pl/pm,2590.html |title=Getta tranzytowe w dystrykcie lubelskim (Transit ghettos in the Lublin district) |access-date=2015-05-20 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212072549/http://www.tnn.pl/pm,2590.html |archive-date=February 12, 2012 }}. ''Pamięć Miejsca''. Retrieved 20 May 2015.</ref> The Germans turned Auschwitz into a major death camp by expanding its extermination facilities. It was only after the majority of Jews from all [[Nazi ghetto]]s were annihilated that the cement gas chambers and crematoria were blown up in a systematic attempt to hide the evidence of genocide. The cremation ovens working around the clock till November 25, 1944, were blown up at Auschwitz by the orders of SS chief [[Heinrich Himmler]].<ref name="gcpolint" /><ref name="Fritsch">[https://web.archive.org/web/20060930045603/http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/new/index.php?tryb=news_big&language=EN&id=849 Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, Poland.] 13 September 2005, Internet Archive.</ref>

== Extermination camps ==
{{See also|The Holocaust in Poland|Final Solution}}

The vision of the [[Final Solution]] had crystallised in the minds of the Nazi leadership during a five-week period, from 18 September to 25 October 1941. It coincided with the German victories on the Eastern Front which yielded over 500,000 new POWs [[Battle of Moscow|near Moscow]].<ref>[[David Glantz]], [[Jonathan House]], (1995). ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler.'' University Press of Kansas. {{ISBN|978-1906033729}}, p. 343.</ref> During this time, the concept of Hitler's ''[[Lebensraum]]'' was redefined. Different methods of industrial-scale murder were tested and the sites of the extermination camps were selected.<ref name=Browning424>{{harvp|Browning|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=d9Wg4gjtP3cC&q=%22murdering%20every%20last%20Jew%20in%20the%20German%20grasp%22&pg=PA424 424]|ps=.}}</ref>

The new extermination policy was spelled out at the [[Wannsee Conference]] near Berlin in January 1942, leading to the attempt at "murdering every last Jew in the German grasp" thereafter.<ref name="Browning424" /> In early 1942 the German Nazi government constructed killing facilities in the territory of occupied Poland for the secretive [[Operation Reinhard]]. The [[extermination camp]]s (''Vernichtungslager'') were added to already functioning [[extermination through labor]] systems, including at Auschwitz ''Konzentrationslager'' and Majdanek; both operating in a dual capacity until the end of the war. In total, the Nazi German death factories (''Vernichtungs- oder Todeslager'') designed to systematically murder [[Holocaust train|trainloads of people]] by gassing under the guise of a shower, included the following:
:{|width="99%" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 90%; border: gray solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: middle;"
|-
| style="background:#f2f2f8; font-size:85%;" colspan=5 |{{center|<big>'''German extermination camps in Poland'''</big>}}
|-
! style="text-align:center;background:#B0C4DE"|
! style="text-align:center;background:#B0C4DE"|''Vernichtungslager''
! style="text-align:center;background:#B0C4DE"|Nazi-delineated territory
! style="text-align:center;background:#B0C4DE"|Polish location
! style="text-align:center;background:#B0C4DE"|Holocaust victims
|-
|{{space|2}}1
|{{space|2}}{{nowrap|[[Auschwitz-Birkenau]]}} ||''[[Province of Upper Silesia|Oberschlesien]]'' ||[[Oświęcim]] near [[Kraków]] ||align="left"|{{space}}1.1 million, around 90 percent Jewish.<ref>''Data sources:'' Rees, Laurence (2005). ''Auschwitz: A New History. New York: Public Affairs''. {{ISBN|1-58648-303-X}}, p. 298. Snyder, Timothy (2010). ''Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin''. New York: Basic Books. {{ISBN|978-0-465-00239-9}}, p. 383.</ref>
|-
|{{space|2}}2
|{{space|2}}[[Treblinka]] * ||''[[General Government|Generalgouvernement]]'' ||80&nbsp;km north-east of [[Warsaw]] ||align="left"|{{space|2}}800,000–900,000 at [[Treblinka extermination camp#Treblinka II|Camp II]] (and 20,000 at [[Treblinka extermination camp#Treblinka I|Camp I]]).<ref name="H/E">Holocaust Encyclopedia, {{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005193 |title=Treblinka |access-date=2012-05-03 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503084809/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005193 |archive-date=May 3, 2012 }}. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.</ref>
|-
|{{space|2}}3
|{{space|2}}[[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]] * ||''[[General Government|Generalgouvernement]]'' ||[[Bełżec, Lublin Voivodeship|Bełżec]] near [[Tomaszów Lubelski]] ||align="left"|
{{space|2}}600,000 with 246,922 from [[General Government]].<ref name="Małczyński-42">{{cite journal | url=https://www.academia.edu/2626602 | title=Drzewa "żywe pomniki" w Muzeum – Miejscu Pamięci w Bełżcu (Trees as living monuments at Bełżec) | publisher=[[University of Wrocław]] | journal=Współczesna przeszłość, 125-140, Poznań 2009 | date=2009-01-19 | access-date=19 May 2015 | author=Jacek Małczyński | pages=39–46}}</ref>
|-
|{{space|2}}4
|{{space|2}}[[Sobibor]] * ||''[[General Government|Generalgouvernement]]'' ||{{nowrap|85 km south of [[Brześć nad Bugiem]]}} ||align="left"|{{space|2}}200,000 (140,000 from [[Lublin Ghetto|Lublin]] and 25,000 from [[Lwów Ghetto|Lwów]]).<ref>[[Raul Hilberg]] (1985), ''[[The Destruction of the European Jews]]'' by Yale University Press, p. 1219. {{ISBN|978-0-300-09557-9}}.</ref>
|-
|{{space|2}}5
|{{space|2}}[[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]] ||''[[Reichsgau Wartheland]]'' ||50&nbsp;km north of [[Łódź]] ||align="left"|{{space|2}}200,000 (most via the [[Łódź Ghetto]]).<ref name="c">{{cite web | url=http://chelmno-muzeum.eu/pl/kulmhof-1941-1945 | title=Historia obozu (Camp history) | publisher=Muzeum Kulmhof w Chełmnie nad Nerem | work=Chełmno extermination camp | date=28 December 2013 | access-date=19 May 2015 | author=MOZKC | format=Information for visitors}}</ref>
|-
|{{space|2}}6
|{{space|2}}[[Majdanek]] ||''[[General Government|Generalgouvernement]]'' ||[[Lublin]] city district at present  ||align="left"|{{space|2}}130,000 per [[Majdanek State Museum]] research.<ref name="Reszka">{{cite web|url=http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=8 |title=Majdanek Victims Enumerated. Changes in the history textbooks? |access-date=April 29, 2013 |author=Paweł Reszka |date=Dec 23, 2005 |work=Gazeta Wyborcza |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |format=Internet Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106112513/http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=8 |archive-date=November 6, 2011 }}</ref>
|-
| style="font-size:85%;" colspan=5 |{{space|6}} '''*'''  Killing factories of secretive [[Operation Reinhard]], 1942{{ndash}}43
|}

The primary function of death camps was the murder of [[Jew]]s from all countries occupied by Germany, except the [[Soviet Union]] (Soviet Jews were generally [[Einsatzgruppen#Killings in the Soviet Union|murdered by death squads]]). Non-Jewish Poles and other prisoners were also murdered in these camps; an estimated 75,000 non-Jewish Poles were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Most extermination camps had regular concentration camps set up along with them including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and [[Treblinka labor camp|Treblinka I]]. However, these camps were ''distinct from the adjoining extermination camps''.<ref name="lifshitz">Moshe Lifshitz, "Zionism". (ציונות), p. 304; (in) ''Trapped in a Nightmare'' by Cecylia Ziobro Thibault, {{ISBN|1938908430}}.</ref>

== Concentration camps ==
{{See also|Forced labour under German rule during World War II|Arbeitsamt in occupied Poland}}

At the beginning of the war, the new [[Stutthof concentration camp]] near [[Gdańsk]] served exclusively for the internment and extermination of the Polish elites. Before long, it became a nightmare of Moloch with 105 subcamps extending as far as 200 kilometres south into the heartland of Poland and more than 60,000 dead before the war's end, mainly non-Jewish Poles.<ref name="ushmm1">{{cite web | url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005197 | title=Stutthof | publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | date=20 June 2014 | access-date=17 May 2015 | author=Holocaust Encyclopedia}}</ref> As far as forced labour, there was little difference between camp categories in Poland except for the level of punitive actions. Some camps were built so that the prisoners could be worked to death out of the public eye; this policy was called ''[[Vernichtung durch Arbeit]]'' (annihilation through work). Large numbers of non-Jewish Poles were held in these camps, as were various prisoners from other countries. Among the major concentration camps run by SS for the purpose of wilful killing of forced labourers, the most notable examples included the [[Soldau concentration camp]] in [[Działdowo]], and the [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp]] made famous in the feature film ''[[Schindler's List]]'' and the ''[[Inheritance (2006 film)|Inheritance]]'' documentary.<ref name="emmyonline">{{cite web|url=http://emmyonline.org/news/archive/winners/news_30th_winners.pdf |title=30th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards Winners Announced at New York City Gala |publisher=National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |access-date=20 May 2015 |format=PDF file, direct download 50.4 KB |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122211127/http://emmyonline.org/news/archive/winners/news_30th_winners.pdf |archive-date=November 22, 2010 }}</ref>

The [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]] located in [[Rogoźnica, Lower Silesian Voivodeship|Rogoźnica]], Poland (part of the German Silesia in World War II),<ref name="com.pl1" /> was surrounded by a network of 97 satellite camps (''Aussenlager'') populated with [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Polish nationals expelled]] from Nazi ''[[Reichsgau Wartheland|Wartheland]]'' in the process of ethnic cleansing. By October 1943, most inmates were [[Polish Jews]] including nearly 26,000 women.<ref name="Andrzejewski" /> There were similar camps, built locally, at [[Budzyń concentration camp|Budzyń]], [[Janowska concentration camp|Janowska]], [[Poniatowa concentration camp|Poniatowa]], [[Skarżysko-Kamienna#German occupation of Skarżysko-Kamienna (1939–1945)|Skarżysko-Kamienna]] ([[HASAG]]), [[Starachowice]], [[Trawniki concentration camp|Trawniki]] and [[Zasław concentration camp|Zasław]] servicing Nazi German startups which ballooned during this period.<ref name="gross-rosen-filie" /><ref name="USHMM-Poniatowa">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005190 | title=Forced labor-camps in District Lublin: Budzyn, Trawniki, Poniatowa, Krasnik, Pulawy, Airstrip and Lipowa camps | publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia: Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp | access-date=April 19, 2013}}</ref> War profiteers set up camps in the vicinity of the ghettos via ''Arbeitsamt'', as in [[Siedlce Ghetto|Siedlce]], the [[Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto|Mińsk Ghetto]] ([[K. Rudzki i S-ka#20th century|Krupp]]), and numerous other towns with virtually nothing to eat.<ref name="EK-Yizkor">[[Edward Kopówka]] (translated from the Polish by Dobrochna Fire), ''The Jews in Siedlce 1850–1945''. Chapter 2: [https://web.archive.org/web/20150518082917/http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Siedlce3/sie137.html  The Extermination of Siedlce Jews.] ''The Holocaust'', pp. 137–167. Yizkor Book Project. ''Note:'' the testimonials from young children beyond their level of competence, such as G. Niewiadomski's (age 13) and similar others, quoted by the author from H. Grynberg ({{OCLC|805264789}}), are intentionally omitted for the sake of reliability. Retrieved via Internet Archive on 30 October 2015.</ref>

== War economy of Nazi Germany ==
[[File:FARBEN DWORY.png|thumb|Birds-eye view of new [[IG Farben]] Buna-Werke industrial complex serviced by as many as 11 slave labour subcamps of [[Monowitz concentration camp|Monowitz]], one of three main camps of [[Auschwitz]] ]]
{{See also|Arbeit macht frei|Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|Economy of Nazi Germany}}
Following the failure of the [[Blitzkrieg]] strategy on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]], the year 1942 marked the turning point in the German "total war" economy. The use of slave labour increased massively. About 12&nbsp;million people, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were interned for the purpose of labour exploitation inside Nazi Germany.<ref name="MMDW">{{cite web|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html |title=Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Labourers |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=2005-10-27 |access-date=2008-05-20 |last=Marek |first=Michael }} See also: {{Cite web|url=http://www.summeroftruth.org/enemy/barracks.html |title=Forced Labour at Ford Werke AG during the Second World War |access-date=2008-05-20 |publisher=The Summer of Truth Website |via=Internet Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060707200926/http://www.summeroftruth.org/enemy/barracks.html |archive-date=July 7, 2006 }}</ref> Millions of camp inmates were used virtually for free by major German corporations such as [[Fritz Thyssen|Thyssen]], [[Krupp]], [[IG Farben]], [[Robert Bosch GmbH|Bosch]], [[Blaupunkt]], [[Daimler-Benz]], [[Demag]], [[Henschel]], [[Junkers]], [[Messerschmitt]], [[Philips]], [[Siemens]], and even [[Volkswagen]],<ref name="Buggeln">{{cite book |title=Slave Labor in Nazi Concentration Camps |author=Marc Buggeln |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-101764-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsuSBQAAQBAJ&q=Index+Companies&pg=PA335 |page=335 |via=Google Books, preview |work=Index of Companies}}</ref> not to mention the German subsidiaries of foreign firms, such as ''Fordwerke'' ([[Ford Motor Company]]) and [[Opel|Adam Opel AG]] (a subsidiary of [[General Motors]]) among others.<ref>Sohn-Rethel, Alfred ''Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism'', CSE Books, 1978 {{ISBN|0-906336-01-5}}</ref> The foreign subsidiaries were seized and [[nationalization|nationalized]] by the Nazis. Work conditions deteriorated rapidly. The German need for slave labour grew to the point that even the foreign children have been kidnapped in an operation called the ''[[Heuaktion]]'' in which 40,000 to 50,000 Polish children aged 10 to 14 were used as slave labour.<ref name="Hrabar">{{cite book |author=Roman Hrabar |year=1960 |title=Hitlerowski rabunek dzieci polskich : uprowadzanie i germanizowanie dzieci polskich w latach 1939–1945 |pages=99, 146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4TRAAAAMAAJ&q=Heuaktion |publisher=Śląsk |location=Katowice |oclc=7154135 |via=Google Books}}</ref>  More than 2,500 German companies profited from slave labour during the Nazi era,<ref>{{cite web|author=Jürgen Reents, ND |date=16 November 1999 |publisher=Die Zeitung "Neues Deutschland" |url=http://www.ta7.de/txt/listen/list0024.htm |title=2,500 Firmen – Sklavenhalter im NS-Lagersystem |language=de |via=Internet Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719090409/http://www.ta7.de/txt/listen/list0024.htm |archive-date=July 19, 2011 }}</ref> including [[Deutsche Bank]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.charitywire.com/charity11/00257.html |title=Comprehensive List Of German Companies That Used Slave Or Forced Labour During World War II Released |publisher=[[American Jewish Committee]] |date=7 December 1999 |access-date=2008-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408151529/http://www.charitywire.com/charity11/00257.html |archive-date=8 April 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} See also: {{cite news |author=Roger Cohen |author-link=Roger Cohen |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807EFD6113AF934A25751C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |title=German Companies Adopt Fund For Slave Labourers Under Nazis |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 17, 1999 |access-date=2008-05-20 }} {{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/germancos.html |title=German Firms That Used Slave or Forced Labour During the Nazi Era |publisher=American Jewish Committee |date=January 27, 2000 |access-date=2008-07-17 }}</ref>

The prisoners were deported to camps servicing German state projects of Organization Schmelt,<ref name="Andrzejewski">Dr Tomasz Andrzejewski, Dyrektor Muzeum Miejskiego w Nowej Soli (8 January 2010), [https://web.archive.org/web/20141021051618/http://www.tygodnikkrag.pl/cms/index.php/artykuy/nowa-sol/33-historia/628-marsz-mierci-znneusalz-skradziona-pami  'Organizacja Schmelt.' Marsz śmierci z Neusalz] (Internet Archive). Skradziona pamięć! ''Tygodnik Krąg.'' Retrieved 22 May 2015.</ref> and the [[war profiteering]] Nazi companies controlled by [[SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt|SS-WVHA]] and ''[[Reichsarbeitsdienst]]'' (RAD) in charge of ''[[Arbeitseinsatz]]'', such as ''[[Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe]]'' (DWB), ''[[Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke]]'' (DAW),<ref name="DAW">{{cite book |title=German Concentration Camps 1933–1945. History |author=Erik Lørdahl |publisher=War and Philabooks |year=2000 |page=59 |isbn=9788299558815 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eDMpAQAAMAAJ&q=Deutsche%2BDAW |oclc=47755822}}</ref> and the massive [[Organisation Todt]] (OT),<ref name="Todt">{{cite book |title=Organisation Todt |author=John Christopher |publisher=Amberley Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4456-3873-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lg7XAwAAQBAJ&q=Arbeitseinsatz&pg=PT37 |pages=37, 150}}</ref> which built [[Siegfried Line]], [[Valentin submarine pens]], and launch pads for the [[V-1 flying bomb]] and [[V-2 rocket]],<ref name="H.E.">Holocaust Encyclopedia (2014), [https://web.archive.org/web/20120329213255/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005454  The Gross-Rosen concentration camp] (Internet Archive). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 22 May 2015.</ref> among other slave labour projects such as the SS [[Ostindustrie]] GmbH, or private enterprises making German uniforms such as [[Többens and Schultz]].<ref name="USHMM-Poniatowa" />

=== Labour camp categories ===
{{See also|Forced labour in Germany during World War II}}

The Germans pressed large numbers of Poles and Polish Jews into forced labour. The labourers, imprisoned in German ''Arbeitslager'' camps and subcamps across Poland and the Reich, worked for a broad range of war-related industries from armaments production and electronics to army uniforms and garments.<ref name="H.E." /> At most camps, including [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], the Poles and Polish Jews deported from Pomerania and Silesia were denied recognition as Polish nationals.<ref name="tradycja" /> Their true numbers can never be known. Only 35,000 Poles who were still alive in 1945 came back to Poland and registered as Buchenwald survivors, others remained in the West.<ref name="tradycja">{{cite web | url=http://www.tradycja.info.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57:bohdan-urbankowski-pami-za-drutami&catid=7:numer-6&Itemid=16 | title=W cieniu Buchenwaldu (In the deep shadow of Buchenwald) | publisher=Magazine Tradycja, pismo społeczno-kulturalne | work=Pamięć za drutami | date=2010 | access-date=20 May 2015 | author=Dr Bohdan Urbankowski | issn=1428-5363}}</ref>
[[File:Arbeitsbuch Fur Auslander 1942.jpg|thumb|upright|Arbeitsbuch Für Ausländer (Workbook for Foreigner) identity document issued to a Polish Forced Labourer in 1942 by the Germans together with a letter "P" patch that Poles were required to wear to identify them from the German population.]]

The [[Gross-Rosen]] population accounted for 11% of the total number of inmates in Nazi concentration camps by 1944,<ref name="MGR">{{cite web|url=http://www.gross-rosen.eu/historia-kl-gross-rosen |title=Historia KL Gross-Rosen |publisher=Muzeum Gross Rosen w Rogoźnicy |access-date=20 May 2015 |language=pl |work=Internet Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140423144417/http://www.gross-rosen.eu/historia-kl-gross-rosen |archive-date=April 23, 2014 }}</ref> and yet by 1945 nothing remained of it due to [[death march]] evacuation.<ref name="Andrzejewski" /> [[Auschwitz]] ran about [[List of subcamps of Auschwitz|50 subcamps]] with 130,000-140,000 Poles on record, used as slave labour. Over half of them were murdered there; others were shipped to other complexes.<ref name="polacy-KL Auschwitz">{{cite web | url=http://auschwitz.org/historia/rozne-grupy-wiezniow/polacy/ | title=Różne grupy więźniów. Polacy | publisher=Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau | work=KL Auschwitz | date=2015 | access-date=22 May 2015 | author=Auschwitz Museum}}</ref> There were hundreds of ''Arbeitslager'' camps in operation, where at least 1.5 million Poles performed hard labour at any given time. Many of the subcamps were transient in nature, being opened and closed according to the labour needs of the occupier. There were also around 30 ''[[Polenlager]]'' camps among them, formally identified in Silesia as permanent ([[Polenlager|see list]])<ref name="demart">{{cite web | url=http://www.demart.home.pl/wysiedlenia/pdf/3.pdf | title=Lista Polenlagrów | publisher=Demart | work=Obozy przesiedleńcze i przejściowe na terenach wcielonych do III Rzeszy | access-date=May 14, 2012 | author=FPNP database | page=6 | format=PDF 251&nbsp;KB }}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> such as [[Gorzyce (Silesian Voivodeship)|Gorzyce]] and [[Gorzyczki (Silesian Voivodeship)|Gorzyczki]].<ref name="Polenlager">{{cite web | url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php.en?action=2.0&tab=3&page_index=1#result_list | title=Directory of Places of Detention | publisher=Federal Archives | access-date=May 11, 2012 | author=Das Bundesarchiv | quote=Search keyword: ''Polenlager'' }}</ref> Many of the 400,000 Polish prisoners of war captured by Germans during the 1939 invasion of Poland were also imprisoned in these camps, although many of them were sent as forced labourers to the heartland of Germany. Several types of labor camps in this category were distinguished by German bureaucracy.<ref name="warrelics">{{cite web|url=http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/konzentrationslagers/kl-kz-al-nl-257431/ |title=List of some of the more common terms and abbreviations |publisher=Internet Archive |work=SS Dienstalterliste |date=2013 |access-date=29 May 2015 |author=War relics |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402100619/http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/konzentrationslagers/kl-kz-al-nl-257431/ |archive-date=April 2, 2015 }}</ref>
#''[[Arbeitslager]]'' was general-purpose term for labor camps in the direct sense.
#''Gemeinschaftslager'' was a work camp for civilians.
#''Arbeitserziehungslager'' were training labor camps, where the inmates were held for several weeks.
#''Strafarbeitslager'' were punitive labor camps,  originally created as such, as well as based on prisons.
#The term ''Zwangsarbeitslager'' is translated as forced labor camp.
#Polen ''Jugenverwahrlag'' were set up for Polish children hard to Germanize.
#[[Volksdeutsche]] ''Mittelstelle'' camps for the actual, and the presumed ethnic Germans.

== Prisoner of war camps ==
{{Main|List of German World War II POW camps}}

The Germans established several camps for prisoners of war (POWs) from the western Allied countries in territory which before 1939 had been part of Poland. There was a major POW camp at [[Toruń]] (Thorn, called [[Stalag XX-A]]) and another at [[Łódź]] with hundreds of subsidiary ''[[Arbeitskommando]]s''; [[Stalag VIII-B]], [[Stalag XXI-D]], plus a network of smaller ones including [[Military district (Germany)|district camps]]. Many [[German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|Soviet prisoners-of-war]] were also brought to occupied Poland, where most of them were murdered in slave labor camps. The POW camp in [[Grądy, Gmina Wąsewo|Grądy]] (Stalag 324) held 100,000 Soviet prisoners; 80,000 of them perished. The Germans did not recognise Soviets as POWs and several million of them died in German hands. They were fed only once a day, and the meal would consist of bread, margarine and soup.<ref name="sztetl">{{cite web |title=Obóz jeniecki w Grądach k. Ostrowi Mazowieckiej |trans-title=Prisoner-of-war camp in Grądy |work=Miejsca martyrologii – Zabytki |location=Ostrów Mazowiecka |publisher=Wirtualny Sztetl ([[Virtual Shtetl]], [[POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews]]) |url=http://www.sztetl.org.pl/pl/article/ostrow-mazowiecka/13,miejsca-martyrologii/25875,oboz-jeniecki-w-gradach-k-ostrowi-mazowieckiej/ |date=11 January 2011 |author=Krzysztof Bielawski}}</ref>

== The victims ==
[[File:The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied.pdf|thumb|"[[The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland]]", by the [[Polish government-in-exile]] addressed to the [[Allies of World War II|wartime allies]] of the then-[[Declaration by United Nations|United Nations]], 1942]]

The Polish nation lost the largest portion of its pre-war population during World War II. Out of Poland's pre-war population of 34,849,000, about 6&nbsp;million{{snd}}constituting 17% of its total{{snd}}perished during the German occupation. There were 240,000 military deaths, 3,000,000 Polish-Jewish Holocaust victims, and 2,760,000 civilian deaths (see [[World War II casualties]] backed with real research and citations).

The Polish government has issued a number of decrees, periodically updated, providing for the surviving Polish victims of wartime (and post-war) repression, and has produced lists of the various camps where Poles (defined both as citizens of Poland regardless of ethnicity, and persons of Polish ethnicity of other citizenship) were detained either by the Germans or by the Soviets.

== Camps after the liberation ==
German camps were liberated by the [[Red Army]] and Polish Army in 1944 or 1945. A number of camps were subsequently used by the Soviets or Polish communist regime as POW or labor camps for Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, e.g.: [[Zgoda labour camp]], [[Central Labour Camp Potulice]], [[Łambinowice]] camp.<ref name="geschichtswerkstatt">{{cite web | url=http://www.geschichtswerkstatt-europa.org/expired-project-details/items/potulice.html | title=One place, different memories | publisher=Geschichtswerkstatt Europa | date=2010 | access-date=August 12, 2015 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716212808/http://www.geschichtswerkstatt-europa.org/expired-project-details/items/potulice.html | archive-date=July 16, 2011 }}</ref>

== Decrees of Polish Parliament ==
On 20 September 2001 the [[Sejm]] of the [[Republic of Poland]] introduced a special bill devoted to commemoration of Poland's citizens subjected to [[forced labour under German rule during World War II]]. The bill confirmed various categories of camp victims as defined during the founding of the [[Institute of National Remembrance]] (Dz.U.97.141.943),<ref name="com.pl2">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/1997/0950.htm |title=Ustawa z dnia 24 stycznia 1991 r. o kombatantach oraz niektórych osobach będących ofiarami represji wojennych i okresu powojennego |publisher=Dziennik Ustaw, 1997. Nr 142, poz. 950 |work=Dz. U. z dnia 24 stycznia 1991 r |date=24 January 1991 |access-date=19 May 2015 |author=[[Sejm]] Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej |format=Internet Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004114051/http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/1997/0950.htm |archive-date=October 4, 2006 }}</ref> but most importantly, named every Nazi German concentration camp and subcamp with Polish nationals in them. The list was compiled for legal purposes as reference for survivors seeking international recognition and/or compensation action. It included Soviet and Stalinist places of detention as well. Among the Nazi German camps were 23 main camps with Polish prisoners, including 49 subcamps of Auschwitz, 140 subcamps of [[Buchenwald]], 94 subcamps of [[KZ Dachau]], 83 subcamps of [[KZ Flossenbürg]], 97 subcamps of [[Gross-Rosen]], 54 subcamps of [[KZ Mauthausen]], 55 subcamps of [[Natzweiler]], 67 subcamps of [[KZ Neuengamme]], 26 subcamps of [[Ravensbrück]], 55 subcamps of [[KZ Sachsenhausen]], 28 subcamps of [[Stutthof]], 24 subcamps of [[Mittelbau]] and others. Without exception, they were set up by the Germans for the abuse and exploitation of foreign nationals.<ref name="com.pl1">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/2001/1154.htm |title=W sprawie określenia miejsc odosobnienia, w których były osadzone osoby narodowości polskiej lub obywatele polscy innych narodowości |publisher=Dziennik Ustaw, 2001. Nr 106, poz. 1154 |work=Dz. U. z dnia 29 września 2001 r |date=29 September 2001 |access-date=19 May 2015 |author=Rozporządzenie Prezesa Rady Ministrów |format=Internet Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213072909/http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/2001/1154.htm |archive-date=February 13, 2006 }}</ref>

Naming of the camps by western media often cause controversies due to the usage of ambiguous phrase "[[Polish death camps (incorrect term)|Polish death camps]]" discouraged by the Polish and Israeli governments as [[loaded language|loaded]]. All camps built in [[occupied Poland]] were German. They were set up during the reign of the [[Nazis]] over [[German-occupied Europe]]. Sporadically, the controversy is caused by the lack of sensitivity toward the history of the German occupation of Poland with comments made without awareness of the [["Polish death camp" controversy|controversy]].<ref name="ObamaDeathCamp">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/world/europe/poland-bristles-as-obama-says-polish-death-camps.html |title=Polish Premier Denounces Obama for Referring to a 'Polish Death Camp' |access-date=29 February 2016 |language=en |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=30 May 2012 |last1=Landler |first1=Mark }}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[History of Poland (1939–45)]]
*[[The Holocaust in Poland]]
*[[Roundup (history)|Łapanka]]
*[[Potulice concentration camp]]
*[[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles]]
*[[Operation Tannenberg]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |author-link= Christopher Browning |last= Browning |first= Christopher R. |others= Contributions by [[Jürgen Matthäus]] |title= The Origins of the Final Solution |publisher= William Heinemann |location= London |year= 2004 |isbn= 0-434-01227-0 }}
* {{Cite web |url=http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/1997/0950.htm |title=Polish Council of Ministers decree on combatants and repressed |access-date=April 10, 2004 |archive-date=October 4, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004114051/http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/1997/0950.htm |url-status=bot: unknown }}
* Polish Council of Ministers {{Cite web |url=http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/2001/1154.htm |title=Decree on definition of detention sites |access-date=March 9, 2004 |archive-date=February 13, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213072909/http://www.abc.com.pl/serwis/du/2001/1154.htm |url-status=bot: unknown }}
* German Camps Polish Victims, [http://germancampspolishvictims.info/ The German occupation of Poland.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810105705/http://germancampspolishvictims.info/ |date=2022-08-10 }} Compendium of anti-Polish sentiment by PMI group; Cardiff, Wales.
* {{cite book |last= Hilberg |first= Raul |author-link= Raul Hilberg |year= 1985 |title= The Destruction of the European Jews: The Revised and Definitive Edition |location= New York |publisher= Holmes and Meier |isbn= 0-8419-0832-X |url= https://archive.org/details/destructionofeu00hilb |url-access= registration |quote= the final solution on a European-wide scale mobile killings. |via= Internet Archive, Snippet view }}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Nazi concentration camps in Poland| ]]
[[Category:German occupation of Poland during World War II]]