Concentration and Death Camps Chart

Starved prisoners, nearly dead from hunger, pose in concentration camp May 7, 1945 in Ebensee, Austria.
Starved prisoners, nearly dead from hunger, pose in concentration camp May 7, 1945 in Ebensee, Austria. (Courtesy of the National Archives/Newsmakers)

From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis ran about 20 concentration camps (with multiple sub-camps) within Germany and Poland, constructed to remove political dissidents and anyone they considered "Untermenschen" (German for "subhuman") from the larger society. Some were temporary holding camps (detention or assembly), and a few of these camps also served as death or extermination camps, with facilities—gas chambers and ovens—specifically built to kill large numbers of people quickly and hide the evidence.

What Was the First Camp?

The first of these camps was Dachau, built in 1933, just months after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. It was strictly a concentration camp at first, but in 1942, the Nazis built extermination facilities there.

Auschwitz, on the other hand, was not built until 1940, but it soon became the largest of all the camps and was both a concentration and a death camp right from its construction. Majdanek was also large and it too was both a concentration and death camp.

As part of Aktion Reinhard (Operation Reinhardt), three more death camps were created in 1942—Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. The purpose of these camps was to kill all the Jews remaining in the area known as the "Generalgouvernement" (part of occupied Poland).

When Did the Camps Close?

Some of these camps were liquidated by the Nazis starting in 1944. Others continued to operate until either Russian or American troops liberated them. 

A Chart of Concentration and Death Camps

Camp

Function

Location

Opened

Evacuated

Liberated

Est. No. Murdered

Auschwitz Concentration/
Extermination
Oswiecim, Poland (near Krakow) May 26, 1940 Jan. 18, 1945 Jan. 27, 1945
by Soviets
1,100,000
Belzec Extermination Belzec, Poland March 17, 1942   Liquidated by Nazis
December 1942
600,000
Bergen-Belsen Detention;
Concentration (After 3/44)
near Hanover, Germany April 1943   April 15, 1945 by British 35,000
Buchenwald Concentration Buchenwald, Germany (near Weimar) July 16, 1937 April 6, 1945 April 11, 1945
Self-Liberated; April 11, 1945
by Americans
 
Chelmno Extermination Chelmno, Poland Dec. 7, 1941;
June 23, 1944
  Closed March 1943 (but reopened);
Liquidated by Nazis
July 1944
320,000
Dachau Concentration Dachau, Germany (near Munich) March 22, 1933 April 26, 1945 April 29, 1945
by Americans
32,000
Dora/Mittelbau Sub-camp of Buchenwald;
Concentration (After 10/44)
near Nordhausen, Germany Aug. 27, 1943 April 1, 1945 April 9, 1945 by Americans  
Drancy Assembly/
Detention
Drancy, France (suburb of Paris) August 1941   Aug. 17, 1944
by Allied Forces
 
Flossenbürg Concentration Flossenbürg, Germany (near Nuremberg) May 3, 1938 April 20, 1945 April 23, 1945 by Americans  
Gross-Rosen Sub-camp of Sachsenhausen;
Concentration (After 5/41)
near Wroclaw, Poland August 1940 Feb. 13, 1945 May 8, 1945 by Soviets 40,000
Janowska Concentration/
Extermination
L'viv, Ukraine Sept. 1941   Liquidated by Nazis
November 1943
 
Kaiserwald/
Riga
Concentration (After 3/43) Meza-Park, Latvia (near Riga) 1942 July 1944    
Koldichevo Concentration Baranovichi, Belarus Summer 1942     22,000
Majdanek Concentration/
Extermination
Lublin, Poland Feb. 16, 1943 July 1944 July 22, 1944
by Soviets
360,000
Mauthausen Concentration Mauthausen, Austria (near Linz) Aug. 8, 1938   May 5, 1945
by Americans
120,000
Natzweiler/
Struthof
Concentration Natzweiler, France (near Strasbourg) May 1, 1941 Sept. 1944   12,000
Neuengamme Sub-camp of Sachsenhausen;
Concentration (After 6/40)
Hamburg, Germany Dec. 13, 1938 April 29, 1945 May 1945
by British
56,000
Plaszow Concentration (After 1/44) Krakow, Poland Oct. 1942 Summer 1944 Jan. 15, 1945 by Soviets 8,000
Ravensbrück Concentration near Berlin, Germany May 15, 1939 April 23, 1945 April 30, 1945
by Soviets
 
Sachsenhausen Concentration Berlin, Germany July 1936 March 1945 April 27, 1945
by Soviets
 
Sered Concentration Sered, Slovakia (near Bratislava) 1941/42   April 1, 1945
by Soviets
 
Sobibor Extermination Sobibor, Poland (near Lublin) March 1942 Revolt on October 14, 1943; Liquidated by Nazis October 1943 Summer 1944
by Soviets
250,000
Stutthof Concentration (After 1/42) near Danzig, Poland Sept. 2, 1939 Jan. 25, 1945 May 9, 1945
by Soviets
65,000
Theresienstadt Concentration Terezin, Czech Republic (near Prague) Nov. 24, 1941 Handed over to Red Cross May 3, 1945 May 8, 1945
by Soviets
33,000
Treblinka Extermination Treblinka, Poland (near Warsaw) July 23, 1942 Revolt on April 2, 1943; Liquidated by Nazis April 1943    
Vaivara Concentration/
Transit
Estonia Sept. 1943   Closed June 28, 1944  
Westerbork Transit Westerbork, Netherlands Oct. 1939   April 12, 1945 camp handed over to Kurt Schlesinger  
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Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Concentration and Death Camps Chart." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/concentration-and-death-camps-chart-4081348. Rosenberg, Jennifer. (2023, April 5). Concentration and Death Camps Chart. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/concentration-and-death-camps-chart-4081348 Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Concentration and Death Camps Chart." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/concentration-and-death-camps-chart-4081348 (accessed March 19, 2024).