Breitenau As An Education and Welfare Camp
Breitenau was first established as a correctional facility. This was the original reason why Breitenau was first opened in 1933. It became a "labour house", where prisoners literally learned how to work. But the jobs that they had at Breitenau were often brutal and back-breaking.
From 1932 to 1933 the prisoner population was 24 people. Between 1933 to 1934, the population increased to 125 people. Part of the 125 prisoners had been arrested during a one-week raid on homeless people known as "Beggars Week". By the end of 1933, 11,000 people were arrested and placed in concentration camps. Only a few of them were brought to Breitenau.
After the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring was made, Breitenau officials began to test prisoners for hereditary diseases. Many of the prisoners who were found to have hereditary diseases were often transported to euthanasia killing centers or kept at Breitenau under penalty of being forcibly sterilized.
Read more about this topic: Breitenau Concentration Camp
Famous quotes containing the words education, welfare and/or camp:
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
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