Why do people think that only Jews died in the concentration camps?

Question

I had family killed in a camp and they were not Jewish, that's why the question came to mind. I moved to the USA and whenever the subject somehow fall to WWII nobody knows that besides the Jews, about 220,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered in the Holocaust (some estimates are as high as 800,000), between a quarter to a half of the European population. Other groups deemed "racially inferior" or "undesirable": Poles (6 million killed, of whom 3 million were Catholic/Christian, and the rest Jewish), Serbs (estimates vary between 500,000 and 1.2 million killed, mostly by Croat Ustaše), Soviet military prisoners of war and civilians in occupied territories including Russians and other East Slavs, the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, Blacks, Jehovah's Witnesses, Atheists,[citation needed] Communists and political dissidents, trade unionists, Freemasons, Eastern Christians, and Catholic and Protestant clergy, were also persecuted and killed. Why?

Answer 1

Too many people have been insufficiently educated about this history. The circumstances around the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses are particularly interesting, since most could have simply signed a recantation of their religious beliefs in order to obtain release.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/g/1998/7/8/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19980708/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2003/3/1/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/1998/6/1/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/g/2002/1/22/article_01.htm

Answer 2

First to the person who said that Gypsies were not mentioned, they were the first non-Jewish group mentioned in the question--that's what Sinti and Roma means.

As to why most Americans don't realize that not only Jews died in the concentration camps, there has been a campaign to keep the perception this way. There have only been two Gypsies appointed to the Holocaust Memorial Council and the first one left calling the council racist. Many Jewish members of the council have made speeches saying specifically that "the holocaust was a uniquely Jewish phonomenon." Most Americans don't even know that Sinti-Roma people are an actual ethnicity. We are one of the most invisible ethnic minorities in the USA, in my guess

Answer 3

I don''t think there is any "seeping anti-semitism" in the question at all. Everyone is familiar with the "Yellow Star of David", but how many can tell you about the "Red Triangle, The Pink Triangle," and more. Destruction of a person's history is as bad as the actual crime. To a gypsey, it's as if the genocide of their people doesn't matter. And the same applies to all who were murdered. They lived, They suffered , They died, They matter.
This in no way diminishes the tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust. But the genocide perpetrated against other groups must never be forgotten either. Then when the words "NEVER AGAIN" are spoken , they will be inclusive of all who suffered and died under the heel of the Nazies.
Many Germans also died for disagreeing with the party or aiding those destined for extermination

Answer 4

Because the majority of the victims were Jews and they were the ones that the Nazis considered to be the most dangerous. Now we know that they killed other people. An estimated 500,000 Christians were killed either by hiding Jews or being a part of some sort of resistance movement, including a Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a part of the resistance. He was stripped naked and was hanged in public (Nazis had a habit of humiliating their victims).

Dutch missionary Corrie Ten Boom spent time in a concentration camp (she was hiding Jews) where her sister perished there in the camp's "hospital." She survived and wrote a book about it called "The Hiding Place."

There were Russians in camps too (watch "Escape from Sobibor" since it illustrates that point) like you said. The mentally disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and anyone considered a threat to the Nazi regime were targeted for elimination like you said.

However, the point is clear. The reason why the focus was on Jews is because they were considered to be the "biggest threat." I will provide you some sources that may be of interest to you.

Answer 5

Mostly you're right, and I agree with you. But in one thing you're wrong. I don't know from which history book you took this information, but it's wrong to say "Serbs (estimates vary between 500,000 and 1.2 million killed, mostly by Croat Ustaše)". In concentration camps on "Balkan area" died almost same number of Serbs, and Croats, and Roms, and Jews. Everyone who didn't fit was eliminated. And that number, is exaggerated. My grandfather was there, and he wasn't Serb, or do anything wrong. He was just young man, and young men didn't fit. He survived only thanking to the fact that camp turned him to a living skeleton. My family didn't recognized him at first when he turned back! So, it would be more accurate to talk about Slavens (Ustashe) that killed Slavens!

Answer 6

it is true that not only Jews were killed but also anyone Hitler hated or felt could undermined his authority. He also wanted a clean gene pool, which would never have happened anyway so he killed any one with a disability or mental problem. He did kill homosexuals, gypsies, people opposed to him in any way. It really did not matter who you were if he hated you, you were going to pay for it dearly and that was with your life. He was a very hateful, evil man, and I hope he is burning in Hell where he needs to be.
I think people only think of Jews when you talk about concentration camps because they talk about it. They talk about what they went through, the suffering, having their lives and homes and self-worth ripped from them, seeing their families die at the hands of pure evil men. The Jews, talk about it because they don't want this to ever happen again. We should listen.
But sadly the world has learned nothing and we still have this going on today.

Answer 7

I think it's mostly because the Jewish have been more vocal about it & their plight for whatever reason had/has been in the media more. I was aware of the many other peoples that died in the concentration camps, but it does seem a lot of people don't. I would say it was a lack of education, but then I have a lack of education myself *shrug*

Answer 8

Because they were the largest number about 6.0 million Jews, including 3.0–3.5 million Polish Jews.And good publication.
Compare with 12,000,000 Chinese killed by Japan this fact they just ignored.My great grandparent also killed in Nan Jing Invasion.But who care anyway.

Answer 9

Wow, you failed to mention the Gypsies. I think more people than you think realize that more than just Jews were killed in the concentrations camps during WWII.

Also, Japan had death camps of their own in the Pacific area. Did you know that almost all of the history books in Japan fail to mention the war crimes committed by the Japaneses?

Answer 10

I had family in concetration camps too and they were Catholic. They made it out alive. I try telling teachers at schools when WWII is discussed that it wasn't just Jews in these camps but the give me this startled and pissed off look because I know something thats not in their text books. They brush me off instead. Even college professors did this to me.