Prisoners' camps
„Two out of seven return home -
that is the norm. It's far worst in the men's camps.
In Ketschendorf every second dies of dysentery, tuberculosis and exhaustion. ...”
Efi Hartenstein
Cruelty and death were the terrible fate of millions of prisoners.
This began for many already en route to the camps.
Thousands died in the long death marches through starvation, dehydration, frostbite, exhaustion or brutality of the guards.
Weeks of travel in cattle cars, without food in the freezing cold, demanded also tens of thousands of victims.
The conditions in the prison camps were in many cases no better. Here the prisoners were killed by malnutrition, disease, forced labor and torture.
But the prisoners suffered not only in East and Southeast Europe. Hundreds of thousands died in the custody of the Western Allies in the camps on the Rhine. They died in wet and cold, in the mud and dirt, without shelter, without food, without medical care.
2,000,000 dead
Number of prisoners' camps at home and abroad:
Soviet Union = 2,022
Great Britain = 396
USA = 155 main camps, 760 sub-camps
Germany = 382
France = 207
Italy = 111
Norway = 75
Africa = 72
Belgium = 45
Netherlands = 20
Denmark = 19
Austria = 19
Greece = 11
Luxembourg = 11 and
Cyprus, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Malta = 5
that is the norm. It's far worst in the men's camps.
In Ketschendorf every second dies of dysentery, tuberculosis and exhaustion. ...”
Efi Hartenstein
Cruelty and death were the terrible fate of millions of prisoners.
This began for many already en route to the camps.
Thousands died in the long death marches through starvation, dehydration, frostbite, exhaustion or brutality of the guards.
Weeks of travel in cattle cars, without food in the freezing cold, demanded also tens of thousands of victims.
The conditions in the prison camps were in many cases no better. Here the prisoners were killed by malnutrition, disease, forced labor and torture.
But the prisoners suffered not only in East and Southeast Europe. Hundreds of thousands died in the custody of the Western Allies in the camps on the Rhine. They died in wet and cold, in the mud and dirt, without shelter, without food, without medical care.
2,000,000 dead
Number of prisoners' camps at home and abroad:
Soviet Union = 2,022
Great Britain = 396
USA = 155 main camps, 760 sub-camps
Germany = 382
France = 207
Italy = 111
Norway = 75
Africa = 72
Belgium = 45
Netherlands = 20
Denmark = 19
Austria = 19
Greece = 11
Luxembourg = 11 and
Cyprus, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Malta = 5