Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany built and operated a system of concentration camps (German: Konzentrationslager) between 1933 and 1945. In these camps, prisoners were held in inhumane conditions, with the majority of prisoners dying from causes including disease, malnutrition, forced labor, and execution by their captors. There were more than a thousand such camps, including subcamps in Germany and German-occupied Europe. In addition to the concentration camps, there were several other kinds of internment camps, and from 1941 onward an associated system of extermination camps was created that was dedicated solely to mass killing. Millions of other victims of Nazi Germany were also killed outside the concentration camp system. The first concentration camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Following the 1934 purge of the SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals", "asocials", and Jews. After the beginning of World War II, people from German-occupied Europe were imprisoned in the concentration camps. Initially, conditions were harsh but rarely deadly, but the availability of food and shelter declined after the start of the war. Although forced labor was a ubiquitous featur