“The official offenses—and there were so many—the repeated threats, the decrees preced-

ing the ghettos, the “Aktions,” the camps of slow or immediate death—and there was
such a variety of them, large and small, known and lesser known: this is a new universe
that the Enemy built with its only goal: to wipe out from history even the memory of its
victims.

“Therefore, reader, study this Encyclopedia which you hold in your hands: say to your-
self that its message comes from afar but, for the sake of humanity, appeals to the future.”
—From the Foreword by Elie Wiesel

The development of this encyclopedia was made possible by the generous support of the
Helen Bader Foundation, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc.,
and the William Zell Family Foundation.

May 2009
1796 pp., 192 b&w photos, 23 maps
Rights: Worldwide
1.800.842.6796 • iupress.indiana.edu
USHO1C cloth 978-0-253-35328-3 $295.00
Published in association with the
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos,
1933–1945
Geoffrey P. Megargee, Editor
Foreword by Elie Wiesel
This monumental 7-volume
encyclopedia, the result of years of
work by the Center for Advanced
Holocaust Studies at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, will
describe the universe of camps and
ghettos—some 20,000 in all—that
the Nazis and their allies operated,
from Norway to North Africa and
from France to Russia. For the first
time, a single reference work will
provide detailed information on each
individual site.
This first volume covers three
groups of camps: the early camps
that the Nazis established in the
first year of Hitler’s rule, the major
SS concentration camps with their
constellations of subcamps, and the
special camps for Polish and German
children and adolescents. Overview
essays provide context for each category,
while each camp entry provides basic
information about the site’s purpose;
the prisoners, guards, working and
living conditions; and key events in the
camp’s history. Material from personal
testimonies helps convey the character of
the site, while source citations provide a
path to additional information.
Geoffrey P. Megargee is an applied
research scholar at the Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies, United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He
is author of War of Annihilation: Combat
and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941 and
Inside Hitler’s High Command.
From the Preface
How many camps and ghettos existed?
Who ran them? Who were their victims?
How long were various camps and
ghettos in operation, and for what specific
purposes? Who profited from them?
Where can one consult archival and other
research resources regarding a particular
camp or ghetto? The answers to these
questions have been mostly anecdotal and
scattered, when they have been available
at all. This encyclopedia attempts to help
close the gaps in our knowledge and
offer assistance to those who would like
to probe more deeply into some aspect of
the universe of Holocaust-era camps and
ghettos more thoroughly. . . .
Our goal has been to produce a work that
will be useful both for members of the
general public and for scholars wishing to
pursue further research. The researchers
and editors of the Museum’s Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies—with the
assistance of hundreds of researchers
around the world—have labored to
answer fundamental questions about
each site as completely as possible and
to provide information on sources for
additional research.

The resulting work . . . has revealed the
sheer scale of the system of perpetration
constructed by the Nazis and their allies—
well over 20,000 camps and ghettos of
various sorts identified thus far. This
volume alone describes over 1,000 camps,
the vast majority of which were unfamiliar
to any but a small circle of specialists
when this project began. Future volumes
will address thousands more. The evil,
misery, and grief that existed in those
places is impossible to quantify—perhaps
impossible to grasp—but also impossible
to deny. Here was a central pillar of the
system of perpetration: the willingness
and ability to incarcerate, enslave,
torture, and kill in the name of assumed
racial, cultural, and social superiority.
The universe of camps and ghettos
epitomized the exercise of raw power
against a society’s supposed enemies, the
manifestation of unadulterated hatred,
fear, and cruelty, which many embraced
wholeheartedly and many more witnessed
and tolerated.
As part of the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum’s mission to inform
the public about the Holocaust and to
enhance future scholarship and teaching
regarding the Holocaust, we are proud
to present this milestone contribution to
Holocaust research, with the expectation
that it will inform and guide its users for
years to come.
Paul A. Shapiro, Director
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Chair
Academic Committee of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council
Sara J. Bloomfield, Director
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Volume I. Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and
Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)
Summary of Contents
Part A Part B
Foreword by Elie Wiesel
Preface Krakau-Plaszow Main Camp
Acnowledgments Camps: Kabelwerk Krakau–Zabłocie
Editor’s Introduction to the Series and Volume I
Reader’s Guide to Using the Encyclopedia Lublin Main Camp (aka Majdanek)
Camps: Bliżyn–Trawniki
Section I: The Early National Socialist Concentration
Camps Mauthausen Main Camp
Introduction Mauthausen Subcamp System
Camps: Ahrensbök-Holstendorf–Zwickau Camps: Amstetten–Wiener Neustadt
Section II: Camps and Subcamps under the SS- Mittelbau Main Camp (aka Dora)
Inspectorate of Concentration Camps/Business Mittelbau Subcamp System
Administration Main Office Camps: Artern–Wickerode
The Genesis and Structure of the National Social Natzweiler-Struthof Main Camp (aka Natzweiler,
Concentration Camps Struthof)
Natzweiler Subcamp System
Arbeitsdorf Main Camp Gruppe “Wüste” Complex
Camps: Audun-le-Tiche–Wesserling
Auschwitz I Main Camp
Auschwitz II-Birkenau Main Camp Neuengamme Main Camp
Auschwitz III-Monowitz Main Camp (aka Buna) Neuengamme Subcamp System
Auschwitz Subcamp System Camps: Alt-Garge–Wöbbelin
Camps: Altdorf–Tschechowitz
Ravensbrück Main Camp
Bergen-Belsen Main Camp Ravensbrück Subcamp System
Camps: Bomlitz–Unterlüss Camps: Ansbach–Zichow
Buchenwald Main Camp Riga-Kaiserwald Main Camp (aka Mežaparks)
Buchenwald Subcamp System Camps: Dondangen–Riga
Camps: Abteroda–Wolfen
Sachsenhausen Main Camp
Dachau Main Camp Sachsenhausen Subcamp System
Dachau Subcamp System Camps: Bad Saarow–Wulkow
Camps: Augsburg–Zangberg
SS-Baubrigaden and
Flossenbürg Main Camp SS-Eisenbahnbaubrigaden
Flossenbürg Subcamp System Camps: Alderney–Wuppertal
Camps: Altenhammer–Zwodau
Stutthof Main Camp
Gross-Rosen Main Camp Stutthof Subcamp System
Gross-Rosen Subcamp System Camps: Adlershorst–Zeyersvorderkampen
Camps: Aslau–Zittau
Vaivara Main Camp
Herzogenbusch Main Camp (aka Vught) Camps: Aseri-Vivikonna OT
Camps: Amersfoort–Venlo
Warschau Main Camp
Hinzert Main Camp
Camps: Bad Nauheim–Zeltingen Wewelsburg Main Camp (aka Niederhagen)
Kauen Main Camp (aka Kaunas, Kovno, Kowno, also Section III: Youth Camps
Slobodka) Introduction
Camps: Kauen-Alexoten–Schaulen Camps: Litzmannstadt–Uckermark

A Note on the Recently Opened International

Tracing Service Documentation
List of Abbreviations
List of Contributors
About the Editor
Indexes
“The project to create an encyclopedia of
camps, ghettos, and other sites of deten-
tion in Nazi Germany and Nazi-dominat-
ed territories is tremendously ambitious
and very important. . . . An encyclopedia
that not only categorizes these sites by or-
ganization and function but also provides
identification, basic information, and a
bibliography for each of these sites puts
into the hand of every scholar of Nazi Ger-
many and the Holocaust an indispensable
source that no individual could compile in
a lifetime of research.”
—Christopher R. Browning, the Frank
Porter Graham Professor of History, Uni-
versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
and author of Ordinary Men: Reserve Bat-
talion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
“The most efficacious way of fighting the
scourge of Holocaust denial is with the
facts. No argument posed by deniers can
withstand the overwhelming weight of
the truth. This encyclopedia will provide
a host of detail about crucial aspects of the
Holocaust that cannot be found elsewhere.
It will also give readers a sense of the
scope of the Nazis’ effort to annihilate the
Jewish people.”
—Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor
of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies,
Emory University, and author of History
on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving
 601 North Morton St
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797
USA

The United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum
Encyclopedia of Camps
and Ghettos, 1933–1945
Published in association with the

1.800.842.6796 • iupress.indiana.edu