Date of Award
5-2023
Degree Type
Thesis-Restricted
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Bischof Guenter
Second Advisor
Kuss Mark
Third Advisor
Ostrum Nicholas
Abstract
Abstract
Totalitarian use of the concentration camp to subjugate and control its citizens was exemplified on a massive scale with the world’s most oppressive twentieth century regimes, Nazi Germany, and the USSR. While evolved from very different political origins, concentration camps were the primary instrument within each nation’s security services resulting in human misery and death on a massive scale. One camp, Sachsenhausen, near Berlin was especially prominent, designed and constructed in 1936 as a model camp with the IKL eventually housed adjacent to it. In May 1945 the Soviets invaded Germany, and within months Sachsenhausen was utilized by the Soviet NKVD and became the most prominent camp in the SOZ. This thesis demonstrates how Sachsenhausen was utilized by both regimes, undoubtedly differing in their politics, but demonstrating the concentration camps as their tool of choice. Any differences in camp administration were significantly outweighed by the human suffering and death experienced there.
Creative Commons License
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Recommended Citation
Molin, Douglas C., "Sachsenhausen, “More of the Same”: The Transition of a Nazi Concentration Camp into a Soviet Special Camp" (2023). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3066.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3066
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.