The Internal Structure of, Daily Behavior in, and the Chances of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps

2016/01/01 by Gerhard Botz, Botz, Gerhard
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #European history and politics #German History and Society #German Social Sciences and History

paper · pdf · doi:10.12759/hsr.suppl.28.2016.335-353

Abstract

This article is outlining the internal structures of concentration camps such as Birkenau or Mauthausen. The author is focusing on the everyday conduct of prisoners as well as their chances to survive: He is positioning the concentration camps into the NS-system, highlighting the material limitations of the prisoners, differentiating within the “society of prisoners”, demonstrating the social structures of the prisoners as well as pointing out their strategies to survive. This article is structured as follows: 1. Introduction, 2. Concentration Camps as part of the NS system, 3. Material limitations 4. Differentiation within the „prisioners‘ society“, 5. Social structure, 6. Behaviours which could help to survive.

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