KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

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  Acknowledgments

  I want to thank everyone who has helped, over the last ten years, to make this book possible.

  The following institutions provided essential backing during different periods of research and writing: the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. I am profoundly grateful for their grants and fellowships, and to the colleagues who supported my applications: Richard Bessel, Jane Caplan, Sir Richard Evans, Norbert Frei, Mary Fulbrook, Neil Gregor, Sir Ian Kershaw, Jeremy Noakes, and Richard Overy.

  Equally indispensable was the help of the staff in memorials, libraries, and archives. I owe a very big word of thanks to Albert Knoll and Dirk Riedel (Dachau), Andreas Kranebitter (Vienna/Mauthausen), Johannes Ibel (Flossenbürg), Monika Liebscher (Sachsenhausen), Wojciech Płosa (Oświęcim), and Sabine Stein (Buchenwald), who all went well beyond the call of duty, and answered my frequent questions and requests with unfailing patience and unrivaled knowledge. In addition, I want to acknowledge the special assistance I received from Maren Ballerstedt (Stadtarchiv Magdeburg); Na’ama Shik, Daniel Uziel, and the late David Bankier (Yad Vashem); Robert Bierschneider (StAMü); Danuta Drywa (Sztutowo); Andreas Eichmüller, Edith Raim, and Jürgen Zarusky (IfZ); Christine Schmidt (WL); Gunter Friedrich (StANü); Karoline Georg and Johannes Tuchel (Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand); Sabine Gresens (BArchB); Gabriele Hammermann and Julia Rosche (Dachau); Regine Heubaum and Jens-Christian Wagner (Dora); Cordula Hundertmark (Ravensbrück); Annette Kraus and Jörg Skriebeleit (Flossenbürg); Astrid Ley and Günter Morsch (Sachsenhausen); Reimer Möller (Neuengamme); Margret Schmidt and Susanne Urban (ITS, Bad Arolsen); Jan Erik Schulte (Wewelsburg); Agnieszka Sieradzka (Oświęcim); and Bianca Welzing-Bräutigam (LaB).

  My huge debt to fellow historians is evident from the bibliography. Many other experts were kind enough to share additional documents and ideas, and the book has benefited greatly from their input. I want to thank Carina Baganz, Antony Beevor, Ruth Bettina Birn, Marc Buggeln, Gabriel Finder, Klaus Gagstädter, Gideon Greif, Wolf Gruner, Susanne Heim, Sarah Helm, Ulrich Herbert, Ben Hett, Jörg Hillmann, Stefan Hördler, Franziska Jahn, Tomaz Jardim, Padraic Kenney, Angelika Königseder, Tamar Lewinsky, Andreas Mix, Pieter Romijn, Andreas Sander, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Patrik Schwarz, Rolf Seubert, Dan Stone, Friedrich Veitl, Robert Jan van Pelt, Rita von Borck, Irene von Götz, Peter Warneke, Paul Weindling, Michael Wildt, and René Wolf. I also want to acknowledge the support of my colleagues and friends at Birkbeck, including John Arnold, Catharine Edwards, David Feldman, Matt Innes, Jessica Reinisch, Jan Rüger, Julian Swann, and Frank Trentmann; above all, I must thank Christian Goeschel, who tracked down key documents on the prewar camps as an AHRC postdoctoral fellow.

  I have been most fortunate to receive expert research assistance from four of my doctoral students, who have all gone on to write outstanding studies of Nazi terror: Chris Dillon, Julia Hörath, Paul Moore, and Kim Wünschmann. Kim also helped with some translations, as did Jeff Porter, Katharina Friedla, and Shaun Morcom. And I want to thank David Dunning, Amelia Nell, and Ina Sondermann for their administrative help.

  I am greatly indebted to those colleagues and friends who generously took the time to read the manuscript and make suggestions for changes and corrections. For their notes on individual sections, I want to express my sincere thanks to Marc Buggeln, Wolfgang Burgmair, Christoph Dieckmann, Julia Hörath, Tomaz Jardim, Michael Metzger, Elissa Mailänder Koslov, Anna Hájková, Dieter Pohl, Jessica Reinisch, Dirk Riedel, Jan Rüger, Ulf Schmidt, Robert Jan van Pelt, Jens-Christian Wagner, and Matthias Weber. And I am immensely grateful to Jane Caplan, Chris Dillon, Paul Moore, Michael Wachsmann, and Kim Wünschmann, who commented on the entire text. The book would be much poorer without their sound advice.

  It has been a real privilege to work with Eric Chinski, my editor at FSG, who was extremely encouraging every step of the way and made countless crucial improvements to the manuscript. I also want to acknowledge the exceptional support by Andrew Wylie and James Pullen at the Wylie Agency, who believed in the book from the start. The lengthy passage of the text from my computer to the printers was eased by the extremely efficient work and good cheer of Scott Auerbach, Gabriella Doob, Frieda Duggan, Peng Shepherd, and everyone else at FSG. Jeff Ward did a first-rate job with the maps, and Pon Ruiter and his team suggested several important last-minute corrections.

  Closest to home, Basti, Christa, Michael, and Gabi helped in every way they could, Gerald did me a big favor with the photos, and Mike was an invaluable counselor and friend, as always. Tracey accompanied me once again during a long research project about a grim subject—from the first germ of the idea to the end—and gave me all the support and love to see it through. And Josh reminded me, every day during writing, that there was a much better world out there, away from my desk. I am so very grateful to them all.

  Index

  The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  abortion

  Abraham, Max

  Action “Bullet”

  Action 14f13; demise of; extension of

  Action 14f14

  Action “Harvest Festival”

  Adenauer, Konrad

  Adler, H. G.

  AELs (Work Education Camps)

  AFA

  Africa; colonialism; South African War

  agriculture

  Ahnenerbe

  aircraft industry

  air pressure experiments

  alcohol; SS drunkenness

  Alderney

  Allach

  Allan, Alexander Smith

  Allied war crimes trials

  Alsace

  Améry, Jean

  amnesty; of 1934; of 1939; for SS criminals

  anarchists

  Annaberg

  Anschluss, see Austria, annexation

  Antelme, Robert

  antiaircraft guns

  Anti-Brown Book

  anticlericalism

  anti-Semitism; in early camps; German public awareness of; Kapos; Kristallnacht; in 1934–39 camps; in 1939–41 camps; in 1942–43 camps; in 1944 camps; postwar; of prisoners

  Arbeitsdorf

  architecture; granite and brick production for; Hitler’s building plans; memorials; of 1939–41; OT projects

  Arendt, Hannah

  Argentina

  Armaments Staff

  arms production; collapse of; Fighter Staff; industry and; of 1944; of 1945; i
n satellite camps; slave labor; underground

  art; on KL system

  “Aryan” heritage

  Aschersleben

  Aseri

  “asocials”; early attacks on; Jews; 1938 raids against; propaganda on; in quarry camps and brick works; sterilization of; terminology; “work-shy”

  atheist prisoners

  atrocity rumors

  Aumeier, Hans

  Auschwitz; Allied bombing raids considered on; arms production; arrival in; barracks; brothel; bunker; chemical plant; children in; complex; conditions; corruption investigation; crematoria; daily life in; deaths; demystification of; demise of; development of “Final Solution”; evacuation of; evidence smuggled out of; extermination policy; family camps; forced labor; foreign opinion on; gas chambers; gender in; guards; Gypsy camp; Himmler’s 1941 visit to; Himmler’s 1942 visit to; Höss as commandant of; human experiments; invention of gas chamber; Jews in; liberation of; looting and corruption; memorials; men in; as a metropolis; multiple uses of; Muselmänner; in 1939–41; in 1942–43; in 1944; in 1945; origins of; Poles in; popular conception of; prisoner relations; as prototype of death factory; as regional killing center; resistance; selections; sex in; Soviet POWs in; Special Squad; SS family life in; SS routines; survivors; as symbol of Holocaust; tattoos; testimonies; T-4 selections; torture; transformation into major death camp; transports to; trials; uprising; women in; see also Birkenau; Monowitz

  Australia

  Austria; annexation of; memorials; Nazi past; postwar trials

  Austrian Jews

  Austrian prisoners

  authoritarianism

  Avram, Janka

  Awronska, Rywka

  Babitsch, Ignat

  badges, see insignia

  Bad Sulza

  Bad Wiessee

  Baer, Richard

  Bala, Alice

  Balitzki, Chaim

  Balk, Theodor

  Baltic camps; evacuation of; see also satellite camps; specific camps

  Baranowski, Hermann

  barbed wire

  Bargatsky, Emil

  barracks; Auschwitz; Bergen-Belsen; Birkenau; Buchenwald; for children; Dachau; daily life in; disease and; early camps; Emsland; functional design; Gypsy camp; Jew Companies; for Jews; Kapos; Majdanek; military routines; 1934–39 camps; 1939–41 camps; 1942–43 camps; 1944 camps; 1945 camps; overcrowding; quarry camps; Sachsenhausen; satellite camps; women’s; wooden bunks; see also specific camps