Could you name any of the Concentration Camps from WWII?

I could name a number of them given time to think. My WWII/Holocaust education came from an insatiable desire to read, not school. However, I did learn quite a bit about some battles from, I think, a US History college class. WWII through the eyes of Easy Company.

Asked my son if he could name any...just Auschwitz.

I am able to name many. I used to work in a Jewish hospital. The hospital was established originally because Jewish and black doctors couldn't practice at many of the local hospitals. I will never forget the many times I had to start an IV in an arm with the tattooed number on it. At times I kissed the tattoo or rubbed my fingers over it gently. At this time this was mainly with elderly, sick patients. Another thing I noticed is how involved the families were. Everyone came to visit and supported the patient. Meanwhile, down the hall, the little Swedish lady sat alone.

In orientation this tiny little Jewish woman explained to us what many of the patients had been through. I will always appreciate and be humbled by what they went through.

What are your thoughts on how we teach about the camps and WW2 in Norway? I have been quite (Ehh... «very») vocal about the fact that maybe they should teach about the concentration camps we had in Norway. Most kids (I hope) have heard about Grini, but that was a kindergarten compared to the others. I fear kids grow up thinking «it couldn’t happen here, we were the good guys», when in fact the Norwegian guards in some of the camps were so violent that the Wehrmacht replaced them with Germans. That even young kids were murdered here. True, the numbers pale in comparison to what happened in the east, but reading about 12 yo’s being dragged screaming to their execution, is heartbreaking, even decades later. Why we demolished the camps and swept the story under the carpet, is something I wish we could rectify today. 

I can think of a couple. It is not something I was ever taught about in history lessons at my particular school in the UK.

For some reason our history lessons went from Tudor kings to Middle Eastern troubles in the 1960’s . There was a huge blank gap in between that was never explained.
Perhaps each school was different. 

I do remember going on a German exchange visit with our school and learning about ‘ the white rose ‘ which was a film we watched showing that many german people did not have Nazi sympathies.
The german family I stayed with were lovely and certainly not proud of that part of their history.

I think it is important to know what horrors have occurred to make sure they never repeat in any country.
Reading a few travel books in my twenties that touched on the history of the British Empire and atrocities  that I had previously not been aware of gave me a shock too - and not in a good way !

I had a chat with out tour guide when we visited Auschwitz - Birkenau a couple of years back, about the difference between the Polish and German responses to the camps after the war. Poland almost immediately decided to preserve what the could of the camps, and not long after looked at making some into memorial sites. Germany - though sometime it was the occupying forces as well - did as Norway did and demolished most of them pretty quickly. She felt that there was a difference in attitude between Poland having it 'done to them', so they wanted to remind the world of it, and Germany being the perpetrators, who would have liked the world to forget/not know. I wonder if there was some guilt on the part of some Norwegians who worked in the camps, which made them want to erase this part of your history?

I don’t know of any books in English about this, and up until recently very little had been published about it in Norway. You could find a little bit here or there, but that was all. If you contact the Holocaust museum in Oslo, they will be able to tell you if there’s anything published in English. I think the main reason that the Norwegian prison camps are mostly forgotten, is that we didn’t have the industrial scale of extermination of people that happened in Germany and the east. And those who suffered the most, were the prisoners who came from Eastern Europe, and after the war, they became the enemy.

Even though it gets mixed reviews for the writing, I purchased this one on Amazon: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TFE1G2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

”We are Going to Pick Potatoes: Norway & the Holocaust” 

It is a first-hand account written by a Jewish woman who was able to escape Norway to the United States. 

Thank you again for your posts here. 

Are you stating that the little Swedish lady that sat alone was alone because she was Swedish or that she didn't have family or what?

She could be the only remaining survivor in her family.  Her family could live very far away.  Not ALL families are the same.

To insinuate that she was alone because she wasn't Jewish is a horrible assumption.

Someday I WILL be that little old lady, all alone due to many reasons (that aren't any of your business) but the way you have talked about this lady is wrong and you are making many assumptions. 

Are you stating that the little Swedish lady that sat alone was alone because she was Swedish or that she didn't have family or what?

She could be the only remaining survivor in her family. Her family could live very far away. Not ALL families are the same.

To insinuate that she was alone because she wasn't Jewish is a horrible assumption.

Someday I WILL be that little old lady, all alone due to many reasons (that aren't any of your business) but the way you have talked about this lady is wrong and you are making many assumptions.
What I read in DEX post was that the Jewish people seemed to have had someone, family, around them in their time of need but the little Swedish lady that sat alone, didn't have anyone to care for her because she wasn't Jewish and that her family didn't care, because she didn't have family with her.  (Sorry for the long run-on sentence).

I am VERY sensitive when people point out that a person who is alone in a time of need doesn't have a supporting family to care for them.  I am alone with no family there to be with me BECAUSE they have died in young age. No fault of anyone, but the truth isn't kind. 

I truly RESENT when someone will ask me where my family is, insinuating that my family doesn't care enough to be there with me.  They are with me, in spirit.  People make judgments about people alone in a crisis, as if they are or it "looks" like that they are un-loveable.

Herzogenbusch or Kamp Vught was located in Vught, Netherlands. My grandfather was murdered here.

It’s beyond sad, really. If it weren’t for the fact that I had no control over the curriculum I’d be very embarrassed. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t learned on my own though. 

I didn't know there were concentration camps in Norway.

Like many Americans, I read John Steinbeck's The Moon is Down in high school and it left me with the impression that Norway was a shining light during WWII.  I thought just about everyone in Norway was part of the resistance and the few who collaborated w/ the Nazis were kind of cartoonish character bad guys who didn't really have any impact.  I guess it just shows that there are good and bad people everywhere and if we neglect parts of our history, we are bound to repeat it.

Yes, I could name them. It’s very sad to me that there are adults that can’t even name one of them.

We had a population of 3 million, and 92.000 were under investigation after the war, and 46.000 were convicted. Admittedly, we did persecute those who were just members of Nasjonal Samling, but the numbers are still high. 

the reason you haven’t heard about the Norwegian camps, are probably for the following reasons: 1) they weren’t extermination camps with gas chambers, 2) the number of prisoners were much smaller (102.000...we think. About 15.000 died), 3) the prisoners were mostly adult males (around 10% were women and children), 4) after the war, they became the enemy (most of them came from Eastern Europe, although Norwegians also died in those camps and 5) it didn’t fit with the national narrative of us being the good guys. Some of us were, some weren’t and the rest were just trying to stay alive.