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Prelude of terror.

Early concentration camps under National Socialism
Exhibitions
Sonderausstellung Auftakt des Terrors.
Sonderausstellung Auftakt des Terrors.
When they hear the term 'concentration camp', many people think first and foremost of gas chambers, crematoria and industrialized mass murder. The fact that this crime against humanity was only set in motion in the second half of the Second World War is hardly known today. At the same time, the history of the so-called "early camps" has also been forgotten: With the "Reichstag Fire Decree" of February 28, 1933, the National Socialists suspended the rule of law in the German Reich and created the basis of legitimacy for arbitrariness and violence. Only a few weeks later, they began to set up concentration camps in all parts of the country.

These early camps played a central role in enforcing and safeguarding the Nazi dictatorship: the Nazis' political opponents were to be neutralized and humiliated, and any resistance was to be nipped in the bud. In the early camps, the National Socialist rulers tested the instruments of violence. This did not mark the path to mass murder by the millions, but it did pave the way. The early camps thus marked the beginning of the terror.

Die Ausstellung "Auftakt des Terrors. Frühe Konzentrationslager im Nationalsozialismus" beleuchtet in elf Themenstationen die Funktion, die den frühen Konzentrationslagern im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem zukam. Anhand zahlreicher Biografien von Verfolgten führt sie die Brutalität vor Augen, die auch schon die Frühphase des NS-Regimes kennzeichnete. Den Ausgangspunkt der Darstellungen bilden die 15 Lager, an die in den an der Ausstellung beteiligten Gedenkstätten erinnert wird. Sie stehen exemplarisch für die mehr als 90 frühen Konzentrationslager im Deutschen Reich.

Vom 8. Dezember 2023 bis zum 6. Februar 2024 ist die Ausstellung im Salmen zu sehen. Die Vernissage findet statt am Donnerstag, 7. Dezember 2023, um 19 Uhr.

Nähere Informationen zur Ausstellung finden sich auf den Webseiten der beteiligten Einrichtungen sowie unter www.auftakt-des-terrors.de.
This exhibition is available in
German

Museum details

Adresse
Lange Straße 52
77652
Offenburg
+49 781 82 2701
Opening hours

48.468048836267, 7.9470395711639

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