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The German extermination camps or death camps were designed and built by Nazi Germany during World War II (1939–45) to systematically kill millions, primarily by gassing, but also in mass executions and through extreme work under starvation conditions. The idea of mass extermination with the use of stationary facilities built exclusively for that purpose was a result of earlier Nazi experimentation with the chemically manufactured poison gas during the secretive Action T4 euthanasia programme against German mentally and physically disabled, followed by the development of homicidal gas chambers by Dr Albert Widmann, chief chemist of the German Criminal Police (Kripo). The technology along with the methods of deceiving victims was adapted, expanded and applied in wartime to members of many ethnic and national groups; the Jews however were the primary targets accounting for over 90 percent of the extermination camp death toll. This genocide of the Jewish people of Europe was the Third Reich's "Final Solution to the Jewish question".〔" Die Endlösung der Judenfrage" – Adolf Hitler (In English, "The final solution of the Jewish problem"). Furet, François. ''(Unanswered Questions: Nazi Germany and the Genocide of the Jews )''. Schocken Books (1989), p. 182; ISBN 978-0-8052-4051-1〕 It is now collectively known as the Holocaust.〔〔Doris Bergen, (Germany and the Camp System ), part of ''Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State'', Community Television of Southern California, 2004–2005〕 Extermination camps were also set up by the fascist Ustaše regime of the Independent State of Croatia carrying out genocidal policy which culminated in 750,000 Serb deaths by the highest estimates.〔 == Background == (詳細はAction T4 euthanasia programme derived from the ideas of racial hygiene was initiated by the ''SS'' in 1939 in order to eliminate "life unworthy of life" (in German: "Lebensunwertes Leben"), a Nazi designation for people who had no right to life. The experience gained in the killing of hospital patients after the invasion of Poland led to the creation of extermination camps two years later. By then, the Jews were already confined to new ghettos and interned in Nazi concentration camps along with other targeted groups, including Roma, and the Soviet POWs. The Nazi ''Endlösung der Judenfrage'' (The Final Solution of the Jewish Question) based on systematic killing of Europe's Jews by gassing began during Operation Reinhard, after the onset of Nazi-Soviet war of June 1941. The adoption of the gassing technology by Nazi Germany was preceded by the wave of hands-on killings carried out by the SS ''Einsatzgruppen'', who followed the Wehrmacht army during Operation Barbarossa on the Eastern Front. The camps designed specifically for the mass gassings of Jews were established in the months following the Wannsee Conference chaired by Reinhard Heydrich in January 1942 in which the principle was made clear that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated. Responsibility for the logistics were to be executed by the programme administrator, Adolf Eichmann. On 13 October 1941, the SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik stationing in Lublin received an oral order from ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler – anticipating the fall of Moscow – to start immediate construction work on the killing centre at Bełżec in the General Government territory of occupied Poland. Notably, the order preceded the Wannsee Conference by three months, but the gassings at Kulmhof north of Łódź using gas vans began already in December, under ''Sturmbannführer'' Herbert Lange. The camp at Bełżec was operational by March 1942, with leadership brought in from Germany under the guise of Organisation Todt (OT).〔 By mid-1942, two more death camps had been built on Polish lands for Operation Reinhard: Sobibór (ready in May 1942) under the command of ''Hauptsturmführer'' Franz Stangl, and Treblinka (operational by July 1942) under ''Obersturmführer'' Irmfried Eberl from T4, the only doctor to have served in such a capacity.〔 Also in: 〕 Auschwitz concentration camp was fitted with brand new gassing bunkers in March 1942. Majdanek had them built in September. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Extermination camp」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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