Concentration camps were places where people considered “enemies of the state” in Nazi Germany for political or racial reasons were imprisoned and exterminated. Political opponents of the Nazis (primarily the Communists and the Social Democrats), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and people accused of antisocial behavior became the prisoners of the first concentration camps. In less than a year of the Nazis’ rule, 50 such camps were established. Dachau was the most famous.

With the outbreak of World War II, a new stage in the history of the Nazi camp system started. Camps were created in all occupied territories. Along with the labor camps, there were so-called “death camps,” which, unlike others, were used exclusively for the mass murder of people.

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, located near the Polish town of Oświęcim [ОщвЄнчім], was the largest of the death camps. Of its one and a half million victims, about one million were Jews. In the exhibition, you can see the robe and wooden shoes of a camp prisoner. Pay attention to the colored triangles sewn on the camp clothes. These were special symbols used by the Nazis to group and identify prisoners belonging to a particular category. For example, people convicted on political grounds were marked with a red triangle. The yellow color indicated the Jewish origin of the prisoner.

Auschwitz was not the only “death factory.” This type of camps included Bełżec [БЕлжець], Majdanek [МайдАнек], Treblinka [ТреблІнка], Chełmno [ХЕлмно], and Sobibor [СОбібур] (all in occupied Poland).

The extermination process was like a conveyor belt. “Selection” was the first stage. Prisoners were divided into two groups: those “able to work” and “incapable.” Сhildren and the elderly mostly were to be immediately killed. Then, prisoners’ property was confiscated, and finally, people were killed in gas chambers.

To kill people in gas chambers, the Nazis used deadly poison, the chemical Cyclone-B. It was an insecticide. Its granules contained hydrocyanic acid. You can see the can of poisonous substance below.

The installation on the left tells about the events in Ukrainian territories. It is dedicated to the Yaniv Concentration Camp (official name – Lemberg-Janiwska Forced Labor Camp). The Nazis established it on November 1, 1941, in Lviv. At first, only Jews were sent there. But then, prisoners of war and civilians of other nationalities joined them. According to various estimates, the total number of camp victims reaches 200 thousand people.

The legendary “tango of death” tragic history is related to the Yaniv camp. The camp’s deputy commandant, Richard Rockita (a violinist before the war), assembled an orchestra of music prisoners and ordered a unique melody to be composed. To its sounds, people were to be killed. Later, it was called the "tango of death." For many prisoners, this music was the last thing they heard in their lives.

During the liquidation of the camp, the musicians were killed to the sounds of this melody. You can learn more about the orchestra's history from the interactive monitor to the left of the installation.