KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps (120 page)

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Authors: Nikolaus Wachsmann

BOOK: KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

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Prologue

10
. There were an estimated four hundred and fifty thousand KL survivors in 1945 (chapter 11), in addition to perhaps one hundred thousand prisoners released from the KL between 1933 and 1944. For mortality figures, see table 2, appendix; Piper,
Zahl
, 143, 167. A small proportion of Jews murdered on arrival in Auschwitz died outside the gas chambers (chapter 9).
A brief note on terminology:
The SS divided its prisoners into different categories according to their (presumed) background. These SS designations shaped the prisoner society and inevitably feature in this book. It is worth noting, however, that many prisoners would have described themselves differently. A number of Jewish prisoners, for example, did not see themselves as Jews (at least not before their arrest). Also, a generic
SS term like “Russian prisoner” (which I have generally replaced with the broader term “Soviet prisoner”) was often applied indiscriminately by the SS to Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, and some Poles.

27
. For this and the previous paragraph, see Zelizer,
Remembering
, especially pages 63–154; Reilly,
Belsen
, 29–33, 55–66; Abzug,
Inside
, 30 (my thanks to Dan Stone for this
reference), 129–40; Frei, “‘Wir waren blind’”; Gallup,
Gallup Poll
, 472, 504 (the figure of one million dead was the median average of answers); Chamberlin, “Todesmühlen.” For the muted coverage of the liberation of Auschwitz, see Weckel,
Bilder
, 47; Brink,
Ikonen
, 25. Quotes in O. White, “Invaders rip veil from Nazi horrors,”
Courier-Mail
(Brisbane), April 18, 1945, in idem,
Conqueror’s Road
, 188–91; “Dachau Gives Answer to Why We Fought,”
45th Division News
, May 11, 1945. Important early books by prisoners include Beimler,
Mörderlager
; Seger,
Oranienburg
; Langhoff,
Moorsoldaten
. Works by relatives include Mühsam,
Leidensweg
; Litten,
Mutter
. My section on the KL in history draws partly on Wachsmann and Caplan, “Introduction,” 2–6.

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