2-5 February 2025, Berlin
The Nazi concentration camp system reached its greatest expansion and highest number of prisoners relatively late, around the turn of 1944/45. Although the history of individual camps and subcamps is well-researched, there is no comprehensive overview of the origins, structure, and living conditions of the prisoner society during its maximum expansion. Who were the prisoners, why and how did they come to the camps, and where did they come from? In particular, the connections between the German occupation throughout Europe and the late phase of the Holocaust have, thus far, been researched to a limited extent. The conference addresses these gaps by bringing together expertise on various topics and regions.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Contexts of the concentration camp system in 1944: the development of the “Inspection of Concentration Camps,” the European-wide radicalization of repression policies, the arms industry and exploitation of prisoners, air warfare and the frontline, the recruitment of civilian labor, other types of camps
- The registration and deportation of prisoner groups in the occupied territories, especially in Poland, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia, but also in Western Europe
- The transnational prisoner society in 1944: a comparison of camp networks, hierarchies, specific topics, and murder campaigns (Aktion 14f13 etc.)
- The transports of Jewish prisoners to the camps in the Reich and Austria in 1944: from Greater Hungary, following the dissolution of the last ghettos in Poland, through the evacuation of camps in the Baltic States via Stutthof
- The society in the Reich and its confrontation with the expanded camp system in 1944: in everyday life, at work, during escapes, criminalization of contacts
A separate panel will discuss the possibilities of (digitally) recording prisoner biographies and their significance for European memory.
We particularly welcome presentations that address not only the micro and individual camp level but also the broader framework of deportations to concentration camps, the prisoner societies, and the political and social contexts of the concentration camp system from the end of 1943 to the beginning of 1945. Please note that the evacuations of the camps and “Endphase” crimes are not within the scope of this conference.
Applications, including an abstract of approximately 1000 characters and a short CV (in German or English), should be sent to buchmeier@stiftung-bg.de by November 22, 2024.
The presentation language is English. Applicants who require translation services are requested to indicate this in their application. Selected speakers will be notified shortly after their submissions are reviewed. Travel and accommodation costs for speakers can be covered in consultation with the organizers.