True scale of the Holocaust

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

One of the worst chapters in history still horrifies today.
During Hitler's brutal reign of Nazi Germany, more than six million Jews were killed but research has discovered that the Holocaust may well be worse than previously thought.

 

Thirteen years ago, researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum began the task of documenting all the ghettos, slave labour sites, concentration camps and killing factories that the Nazis set up throughout Europe - and realised they had underestimated the extent of the Nazis' evil. This map shows the vast spread of SS concentration camps across Europe

The map shows the Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler's reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945

Researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have documented all of the Nazi concentration camps, ghettos, slave labour sites and killing factories set up across Europe. When they first started the project, the team expected to find about 7,000 camps and ghettos.

Shockingly, they discovered 42,500 camps across large swathes of German-controlled Europe. The researchers predict that up to 20 million people died or were imprisoned in the sites.

Speaking to the New York Times, Hartmut Berghoff, director of the institute, said: 'The numbers are so much higher than what we originally thought.

This image shows the main gate of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, with the sign above the gate reading: Hard work will set you free

Horrific: The figures are much higher than previously thought - researchers first thought that about 7,000 Nazi camps existed

 

Awful: Jewish men are pictured being transported from the Warsaw Ghetto by Wehrmacht soldiers to work on sites elsewhere

A BREAKDOWN OF THE CAMPS

When the project began, researchers thought they would find about 7,000 Nazi camps but found more than 40,000.

• 30,000 slave labour camps
• 1,150 Jewish ghettos
• 980 concentration camps
• 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps
• 500 brothels filled with sex slaves
• And 1,000s of camps used for euthanizing the elderly and infirm, performing forced abortions, 'Germanizing' prisoners or transporting victims to killing centres

'We knew before how horrible life in the camps and ghettos was but the numbers are unbelievable.'

The figure includes 30,000 slave labour camps and 980 concentration camps. As well as 'killing centres' they included forced labour camps where prisoners made supplies for the war. They also included sites called 'care' centres in which pregnant women were made to have abortions or their babies murdered shortly after birth.

Researchers have created a series of maps which present a grim view of life in wartime Europe. They show how widespread the camps were, although most were centred in Germany and Poland.

Previous data has shown just the existence of individual camps on a fragmented basis but using data from 400 contributors, they have documented the large scale operation discovering exactly where they were located and run.
It is believed the research will help survivors with their claims of unpaid insurance policies. Researchers say the project has helped change the understanding of Holocaust experts on how the camps were run.
The Warsaw Ghetto has been identified as the biggest site - holding about 500,000 people at one point.