With the rise of Adolf Hitler and the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (NSDAP – Nazi Party) taking control of Germany in 1933, the “Sturmabteilung” (SA brown shirts) began to quickly arrest and detain thousands of people across the new Third Reich. These ill-fated souls, made up of Communists, career criminals, priests, free masons, homosexuals and others deemed enemies of the new state, were seized without warning, often in the dead of the night. While under lock and key, they would be tortured and abused in dank cellars, dingy warehouses, abandoned breweries or any other available local holding areas out of the public’s view.
When the number of inmates held across the country exceeded 100,000, Hitler ordered the establishment of a “Konzentrationslager” (KZ - concentration camp) system, bringing the prisoners into centralized…
