Some people think concentration camps were confined to the Nazis. These are people who are bored with history.
Many historians, including Hannah Arendt believed that concentration camps were invented by the British during the Second Boer War in South African. Of course, the British did not have the systematic machinery of murder which Nazis did, but they had concentration camps, and maybe even invented them. Some people, like me, think the camps were a logical extension of colonial rule, because of the powerful belief in white supremacy by most European countries.
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand camps, that we would call concentration camps. Adolf Hitler came to power by legal and democratic means. In 1932 he ran for the presidency but was defeated by the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg. Yet he had gained a lot of popularity. In 1932 the Nazis became the largest party in the German Reichstag, but did not have the absolute majority. Traditionally the leader of the party who held the most seats in the Reichstag was appointed Chancellor, but the President von Hindenburg was reluctant at first to appoint Hitler. After negotiations in 1933 von Hindenburg acquiesced and appointed Hitler Chancellor. Hitler was still not an absolute dictator at that time.
When the German Reichstag was set on fire later in 1933, Hitler blamed the communists without any evidence to that effect and as a result convinced von Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree which severely curtailed the liberties of and rights of Germans and thereafter Hitler used the fire as a pretext to eliminate his enemies (political opponents). in effect he said, only he could save Germany. Sound familiar?
Then he argued that he should be given even greater powers to curtail his opposition and proposed the Enabling Act of 1933 which gave the German government the power to override individual rights and also vested the Chancellor (Hitler) with emergency powers to pass and enforce laws, without parliamentary oversight, much like Donald Trump has been doing in the United States since his 2nd election in 2024. After that law was passed, Hitler had de facto dictatorial powers and almost immediately ordered the construction of the first of German’s concentration camps at Dachau for communists and other political opponents. After von Hindenburg’s death Hitler merged the chancellery with the presidency into what he liked to be called, the Führer (“leader”). That completed his rise to absolute power.
At first the camps were run by the Sturmabteilung, the original Nazi paramilitary organization. Later they were run by the SS. At first most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on the Nazis collected others as prisoners, including “habitual criminals,” “asocials,” and of course, Jews.
Himmler, one of Hitler’s lieutenants, called for a war against the “organized elements of sub-humanity” that included communists, socialists, Jews, Freemasons, and criminals. Hitler secured his appointment as Chief of German Police in 1936.
Bulgaria, an ally of Germany in the World War II built and operated its own concentration camps and labor camps, mainly for political opponents, though some Roma were also imprisoned. As well when Germany requested Bulgaria send its imprisoned Jews to Germany they complied with that request. These camps, such as Ribaritsa, were established by the government to intern individuals considered “politically dangerous.”