Concentration Camps during the Holocaust

The following list of German terms relating to camps under control of the Nazis between 1939 and 1945 in Germany and German-occupied areas in Europe.

Außenarbeitslager – Outlying labor camp (ie of a concentration camp or ghetto)

Arbeitslager – Labor/Work Camp

Arbeitserzeihungslager – labor re-education/reformatory camp

Arbeitszuchtlager – Labor reformatory camp, disciplinary work camp

Aufenhaltslager – Transit Camp

Auffanglager – Receiving Camp (ie typically refers in the post-liberation or postwar period to an initial refuge and processing center for refugees or displaced persons, though it may also refer to wartime concentration camps such as Wöbbelin, a subcamp of Concentration Camp Neuengamme, which received prisoners from camps being “evacuated” in the East, such as Auschwitz.

Außenlager – Outside or branch camp of a main concentration camp

Ausländerlager – Foreign persons camp (Missour detention camp)

Ausweichlager – Reserve depot, storehouse, store, warehouse, alternative camp

Beutelager – Captured material depot, booty warehouse

DP Lager – Displaced Persons Camp

Durchgangslager – Transit Camp

Durchgangslager für kriegsgefangene Luftwaffangehörige (aka Dulag Luft) – Transit camp for air force prisoners of war.

Erziehungslager – Reformatory or re-education disciplinary camp

Erholungslager – Convalescence camp, recuperation camp (ie in a concentration camp context this may refer to a separate quarantined section or barracks of a camp or to a distinct quarantine subcamp eg KLM Erh.Lag. [in full: Konzentrationslager Mauthausen Erholungslager} means “Mauthausen Concentration Camp convalescence camp. It should be noted that in the case of Mauthausen, such “convalescing” prisoners were often sent on to killing facilities such as Schloss Hartheim.

Frauen-Konzentrationslager – Women’s concentration camp (ie may refer to part of a camp. Eg. “FKL Birkenau” means Auschwitz-Birkenau’s Women’s Concentration Camp.

Frauenlager – Women’s camp (FL Birkenau = Women’s camp in Birkenau)

Frauenschutzhaftlager – Women’s “protective custody” camp

Geheimstaatspolizeilager (Gestapolager) – State security camp (Gross-Beeren)

Heimkehrerlager – Reparation camp (ie literally “home returnees camp”, camp for prisoners of war waiting to be either exchanged or returned home on medical grounds.

Interninerungslager – Internment Camp

Internierungslager für Zivilpersonen – Internment camp for civilians

Judenlager – camp for Jews

Krankenlager – Sick camps or Quarantine Camps such as Kaufering IV and VII subcamps of Dachau

Krankenbuchlager München – Repository of Military Hospital Records in Munich

Kriegsgefangenenlager – Prisoner of war camp

Konzentrations-Lager (KL) - Concentration Camp

Konzentrationslagern – Concentration camps (ie commonly seen plural dative form of the noun Konzentrationslager

Lager – Camp

Lagerältester – Camp elder/senior

Lagerzrtzt – Camp doctor

Lager Nakumbs (Ugarsaland) – Southern African (now Malawi) evacuee camp

Lagerführer – Concentration Camp Leader (ie subordinate to Lagerkommandant)

Lagergestapo – Camp Secret State Police

Lagerkommandant – Concentration camp commandant

Lagern – Camps

Lagerstrafen – Camp-administered punishments

Lagerstufe {I, II, III or 1, 2, 3] – camp [severity] level (ie SS-assigned three-tired categories of concentration camps according to degree of harshness of prisoner treatment, ranging from Lagerstufe I – the most “lenient” level camps (eg Dachau, Sachsenhausen, or Auschwitz I), through the more severe Lagerstufe II camps (eg Buchenwald, Neuengamme, Flossenbürg, or Auschwitz II), to the most severe level Lagerstufe III camps (eg Mauthausen), to which prisoners deemed “scarcely redeemable” (kamm noch erziehbar) were specifically sent to perish under the harshest possible treatment. By way of illustration, in the offices of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt Mauthausen was referred to by the nickname “Knochenmühle,” or bone-grinder. Unlike many other concentration camps, intended for allcategories of prisoners, the Lagerstufe III camp Mauthausen was chiefly used for “Extermination through Labor” of the most intelligentsia or members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazis during World War II

Lager Kantine – Camp canteen (ie this camp shop in the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, operated by the Jewish Council’s Centraal Distributie Kantoor = Central Distribution Office). Camp slang = casino.

Lagerartzuntersuchungen – Camp physician examinations

Lager Warenhaus – Camp warehouse

Männer-Konzentrations-Lager – Men’s concentration camp (MKL Buchenwald = Men’s camp in Buchenwald)

Marinekriegsgefangenlager für Marienangehörige (MarLag)– Internment camp for naval prisoners of war.

Marineinternietenlager für Angehörige der Handelsmarine (Milag) – Internment camp for merchant marine prisoners of war

Mischlingslager – Camp for persons of “mixed Jewish blood” (ie records concening such camps, often operated by Organisation Todt)

Nebenlager – Annex camp (eg “Nebenlager Gusen” means “Gusen annex camp” [of Mauthausen KL])

Offizierslager für kriegsgefangene Offiziere – Prisoner of War camp for officers

Polizeiliches Durchgangslager – Police Transit Camp

Polizeihaftlager – Police detention camp

Reichsautobahnlager – National highway camp (ie Autobahn construction labor detail)

SS-Sonderlager – SS Special Camp

Sammellager – Assembly camp (eg Sammellager Drancy)

Schutzhaftlager – “Protective Custody Camp”

Sicherheitslager – Security Detention Camp (SL Gaggenau, SL Vorbrück Schirmeck)
Sonderlager – “Special” Camp (Hinzert SS-Sonderlager)

Stammlager – Main camp, permanent camp (ie for long term holding of prisoners of war, or in the case of concentration camps, for central administration eg “Aushwitz I – Stammlager, may also refer to longterm prisoners of war camps)

Strafgefangenlager – Penitentiary Camp

Vernichtungslager – Death Camp

Zeltlager – Tent camp (ie temporary or provisional section of a concentration camp, often still under construction, wherein prisoners were billeted in tents instead of fixed-structure barracks; eg a handwritten Z is frequently seen in the upper right hand corner of Buchenwald Individual Documents’ Arbeitskarten to indicate a prisoner’s billeting in the Buchenwald Zeltlager.

Zwangsarbeitslager – Forced labor Camp

Zwangenarbeitslager für Juden – Forced labor camp for Jews

Zigeuner Lager – Gypsy camp

Zigeunerfamilienlager [Auschwitz] – Gypsy family camp at Auschwitz

Zweiglager – Annex or branch camp

[All terms were taken from the International Tracing Service Archive List of Terms and Abbreviations]