Nazi concentration camps were created in the thirties and were designed for the imprisonment and torture of those the Third Reich deemed 'unfit' and 'undesirable'. Dachau was the first concentration camp opened in 1933.
According to the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, there were some 42500 ghettos and camps in Europe during the era of Nazi Germany.
The so-called 'death camps' led to the massive and systematic annihilation of Jews, Roma and other ethnic, political and sexual minorities, who were killed in the camps by poison gas and forced labour under conditions of starvation.
