Death Camps in the General Government (1942–43) and High-Technology, Labouring-to-Death Camps in Germany (1943–45)

This chapter discusses the three Operation Reinhardt Death Camps, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, located in the General Government. Within hours of arrival, most victims were dead. However, the two enormous labouring-to-death camps discussed here operated rather differently. In the case of Auschwitz-Birkenau, transported victims were selected on arrival at the ramp, and 80 per cent were sent to immediate death; the remainder were employed in high technology industries, notably the Buna plant manufacturing synthetic rubber at Monowitz. In the case of Mittelbau Dora, selections of prisoners, originally made at Buchenwald, were immediately transported and forced into the labouring-to-death regime located in the underground factories related to key aviation and rocket industries.