OK, I see the problem here now. It is ignorance of history. Some folks don’t know the difference between a concentration camp, a labor camp, and a death camp. While many of you might not have the resources to visit the facilities and learn the history on-site, there are many resources available through libraries or online.
Some specifics mentioned by some of you:
Dachau - set up as a concentration camp (the first one), primarily for political prisoners although also used by others deemed undesirable.
Buchenwald - primarily a labor camp, many died from starvation and disease, (and some executions) but not an extermination center. Interestingly enough, it was operated by the Soviets after they captured it, and some folks deemed undesirable by both the Nazis and the Reds were imprisoned there by both.
For those of you with little knowledge of the subject except what you learned from your politically correct teachers, you might start with the map here:
http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/ss/Camps-Map.htm
(Just breaks down between concentration camps and death camps).
See also the list here, that designates the extermination camps.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/cclist.html
Oh I understand the difference between slave labor camp were you were worked to death, a concentration camp were you were abused to death & a death camp were you went up the crematorium chimney within a couple hours after you arrived.
What you seem to be hung up on is the fact that the folks who disagree with you understand that the whole damn system was set up for one purpose to control those that the powers that be wanted to be rid of one way or another & if you could make money off the misery/slave labor of others so much the better.
The fact that their are assh*les who still claim that no one was killed (as opposed to merely dying)at these camps is a friggen disgrace . It is also a recipe for disaster simply because those that claim it never happened provide cover for those who would do it again if they have half a chance. And yes I include the government of the United States in that category as well.
I’ve been to Buchenwald, next to the very cultured city of Weimar, Germany.
It may not be technically designated a “death camp” but well over 55,000 people were purposely murdered there. It still reeks, spiritually...of death.
The furnaces are still there...looking well maintained enough to start up tomorrow. The dissection tables where gold teeth were pulled from the bodies are still there, as well as a cellar where 2000 prisoners were strangled to death by hanging them up on iron hooks.
Nearby are the large brightly colored Gestapo barracks. There are photos of the Gestapo guards hamming it up with their girlfriends on the weekends....and the wife of the camp commander (”the witch of Buchenwald”)had a penchant for decorative lampshades made with tattooed human skin (another reason never to get inked!).
The concentration camp of Buchenwald is truly an sad and chilling place—whatever you name it.