Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity | Extermination Centers

Were Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor, Birkenau (Auschwitz II), and Treblinka concentration camps? Can they be mentioned or studied in the same terms as Dachau or Mauthausen? No. In order to distinguish them from "classic" concentration camps and define their dreadful uniqueness, it is not enough to substitute one simple descriptive word for another—designating them as "extermination camps" or simply "death camps". At Dachau, Buchenwald, or even Ravensbrück, human beings considered dangerous to the larger society, but nevertheless "recyclable," were confined for more or less lengthy periods. At Treblinka, however, the men, women, and children arriving there constituted an ontologically irrecoverable set of "subhumans" that, according to the Nazi perspective, encumbered the world and prevented its proper functioning. They were gassed as soon as they arrived. Not infrequently, nine thousand Jews were deported to Treblinka on a single day, with...