[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It is noteworthy that there is a big difference between concentration camps in Germany, and outside of Germany. Within Germany, there were attempts to “hide in plain sight”, camps such as Dachau.

Dachau is something of a disconnected suburb of Munich, a flat terrain small city. Today, the camp is within city limits, and occupies about the same area as would a suburban high school in America. This normalcy makes it no less sinister.

Camps like Auschwitz are clear examples of “industrial genocide”, the treatment of mass murder like mass production, but with human beings as the raw materials and death as the product. A semi-automated abattoir.

But the question remains, why have such camps in Germany? Was there a purpose in putting such a place “in their backyard?” There is no doubt that they knew what it was, though they pretended not to know of it.

It is easy to see the outrage of US military personnel who forced the local citizens to see what was happening next door.

[SJackson]

But the question remains, why have such camps in Germany? Was there a purpose in putting such a place “in their backyard?”

Dachau was built in 1933 to deal political prisoners. At that point in time their geographical options were limited. And Germany was where the political prisoners were, in the same sense that Auschwitz was built where the Jews were.

[PzLdr]

There’s another difference. The six death camps were located in Poland. The difference between them and the concentration camps was that they were designed for the principal task [initially in the case of Auschwitz -Birkenau] of extermination, if not immediately, within a very short time of arrival. While the concentration camps were lethal [some, e.g Mauthausen, more than others], the theoretical task was forced labor, and the survivability rate was higher.

[SJackson]

Auschwitz was built where the Jews were, more accurately at it's inception, where the POWs and Polish political prisoners were.

[ohioman]

That's because the camps in Germany were Concentration Camps where you were usually worked to death (similar to the Soviet Gulag), whereas all the Death (i.e. Extermination) camps were outside of Germany (mostly in Poland, e.g.Auschwitz, Sobibor, Treblinka).

It's hard to believe, but you had “some” chance of survival in a concentration camp, but almost no chance in an extermination camp.