One of the first concentration camps that was cleared by the forces was Majdanek, in 1944, located near Lublin, in Poland. In this camp, the prisoners were placed under forced labor and later on exterminated, in the period between 1941 and 1944. It is estimated that around 78,000 people were killed here. Auschwitz was the second of the liberated concentration camps, in 1945. This is one of the most well-known concentration camps, due to the fact that it included famous prisoners, books were written about it and the largest number of deaths was recorded here (approximately 1.1 million people). Auschwitz was a larger camp facility, which included multiple barracks, subcamps and other buildings. In addition to this, the torture practices here were deemed to be a lot crueller, as they also included medical experiments, especially done on children, and other killing methods. In 1945, several other concentration camps were liberated as follows: Buchenwald (by the American forces), Bergen-Belsen (by the British forces), Dachau (by the American forces), Ravensbruck (by the Soviet forces), Mauthausen (by the American forces) and Theresienstadt (by the Soviet forces).

All the concentration camps liberated still had people living in them. However, their lives were in danger due to the treatments they suffered, diseases caught and malnutritions. Several camps, that were not liberated, were later on destroyed by the Nazis, such as Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec.

The first type of concentration camps was hostage camps, also known as death camps, because the ones who were held hostage in them were killed. Then, there were the labour concentration camps, where interned inmates were submitted to hard physical labour. The conditions there were truly inhumane, and the treatment the inmates were receiving was more than cruel. The POW concentration camps were the places in which war prisoners were being held after they had been captured by the Nazi army. They were tortured and liquidated on a large scale. In those times, concentration camps for rehabilitation and re-education of Poles were also popular. The Poles were being held there for re-educational purposes, established by the values and beliefs of the Nazi.

Then, we have transit and collection camps, which were mainly temporary concentration camps, where prisoners were held until being transferred to other, bigger camps. Finally, the worst category is definitely the extermination concentration camps. As the name may suggest, these camps had the purpose of killing all new-arrivals. Nevertheless, all the above mentioned concentration camps had some elements of the extermination camps, because people were being killed there, too. The worst concentration camps were the Aktion Reinhard ones: Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor, but Chelmno, Majdanek and Auschwitz were also ‘popular’. For our generation, imagining how did people live in these concentration camps is quite impossible, especially when we think of how they were reasonless tortured and killed.

Once hearing about the life in concentration camps, hopefully no one will ever think about using them again. Concentration camps should only be used as what they are today, meaning museums, because the people who lived and died in them are the proof of a harsh regimen, which had absolutely no consideration for human life. Well, concentration camps were basically camps, where people were imprisoned under unimaginable conditions. The life of people who were locked in concentration camps was truly cruel. A normal day usually began at 4:30 in the morning, and the prisoners were given about 30 minutes to wash themselves.

Then, they had to be present in the yard for the morning roll. After that, they had to work, normally for 12 hours, without stopping. ‘Rest’ was not a word allowed in concentration camps, because there was no time for breaks. After the working period was over, people in concentration camps had to get their daily meal: bread and water. They had some spare time, until the evening roll came. If, for whatever reason, a prisoner was missing from concentration camps, all the rest had to stand still until the missing one was found. Then, cruel punishments were applied to all of the concentration camps prisoners.

Finally, they were given permission to retire and to get some sleep. Out of fear of not losing their clothes or shoes, they would usually sleep on them. Moreover, doctors loved performing cruel experiments on prisoners, to test the efficacy of different medical procedures or equipments. You can see, thus, that life in concentration camps was unbelievably hard. I do not think that anyone can imagine what it felt like, and hopefully, we will never find out.

The construction of concentration camps was established by law in Nazi Germany. The first concentration camps were created in 1933 and people were arrested and taken to such locations, where they have been retained until the end of the war, in 1945. Concentration camps were part of the Nazi regime and such camps were not only created in Germany, but also in the territories that entered under the occupation of Nazi Germany during the World War II. Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of Germany ordered the development of the first concentration camps just a few weeks after his election as the Führer of Nazi Germany. Concentration camps were build all over Germany and people began being arrested, most of the times with no real reasons or usually with invented charges. An impressive number of people were held prisoners in concentration camps. The concentration camps concept represented a new system of imprisoning people starting with 1934, under the supervision of SS leader, Heinrich Himmler. The concentration camps created in Germany were run by the SS, the elite guard of the Nazi party.

Starting with 1939, after the moment when Germany invaded Poland, new concentration camps were built on the territories occupied. Prisoners were forced to work until death in concentration camps. The Nazi have created numerous such locations, concentration camps being divided in different categories which included the hostage camps, in which hostages were held until being killed, labor camps, in which people were detained under inhumane conditions and the hardest treatment, being forced to work, POW camps, in which prisoners of war were retained and tortured, camps for rehabilitation, in which people were reeducated to become adherents of the Nazi regime and extermination camps, in which individuals were killed systematically, in time the Nazi developing new ways to exterminate prisoners more economically. Camps could also be created as a combination of the elements already mentioned, as most camps also had extermination systems.

At the end of World War II, most Nazi concentration camps were destroyed. However, some were made into memorials and are nowadays visited by tourists from all over the world. Visiting Europe and some of the most famous concentration camps is a great way to enter into contact with this part of the history and understand what prisoners have been through.