Was Auschwitz a concentration camp?
Auschwitz was a concentration camp, but more specifically a concentration camp complex and also known as a “Death Camp,” though it had forced labor centers. The complex had three main camps, and was the largest of all of the concentration camps. Two were for forced labor, and the third mainly for exterminations, but also used as a work camp. Here’s a more detailed analysis: Auschwitz I- The main camp. This camp was created to incarcerate “enemies of the German regime,” forced labor and to exterminate those specifically targeted by the SS as “threats.” The main source of killing here was the gas chamber, the Black Wall where thousands were executed and the cermatorium. The first improvised chamber was known as “Block 11.” Also in this camp, there was Block 10, where the horiffic medical experiments were conducted on (as quoted from the link) “pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations, castrations, and hypothermia experiments on adults.”
