Where did Hitler learn about the term concentration camps?

Question

I need this for a history paper, could anyone help me?
I need to know where Hitler learned first about the term concentration camps.He mentioned it first 1921, I know there were spanish "campos de concentración" in the 19th century, but I don't know where Hitler read or heard that term.Does anyone know any book Hitler is known to have read that mentions it or have any other information?Thanks.

Ok, maybe i have to be more precise.This is not for homework, I'm in university and writing my final paper on KZs.If i knew any book that mentions that, I'd read it.
I do know about Concentration camps in history, my question is about where Hitler learned that term?Maybe someone read a biography that mentions that and could give me a reference.
And no, I don't speak italian, sorry.

Answer 1

I understand what you are asking - looking for verifiable 'linkage' - and that the answer would be very interesting. I don't think you'll find it though... I presume your 1921 reference is good (and that you have a copy of it). I also presume it doesn't give any context that would give you any clues where Hitler 'borrowed' the term from. I'd tend to the view that Hitler would have been aware of the general scandal that followed the British use of concentration camps in South Africa in the Boer War. There would have been numerous newspaper reports from 1902 onwards. The British involvement would have been 'played' up in Germany before and during the First World War as evidence of the barbarity of the British. So essentially I am suggesting that Hitler was probably quoting 'common knowledge' rather than a specific source for his use of the term.

There is a second angle on this though. Hitler might not have been responsible for the use of the term in relation to the camps themselves. We tend to ascribe to Hitler a 'total control and responsibility' for every decision in Nazi Germany (and there are some who encourage that view as it absolves 'everyone else'). I'd suspect that the reality was that some camp commander or middle ranking Nazi official remembered the title and applied it to the camps. The detailed history of the camps might give you a clue. Then of course you'd be chasing two threads, did that Nazi official borrow the term from the British? Or did he borrow it from Hitler's 1921 reference.

I also presume you are chasing this down in the German language, and that concentration camp doesn't have some significance in the German language that points to yet another origin. All I can say is - good luck!

Answer 2

I can't give an intelligent answer to your question without knowing who "we" is. Are you speaking of citizens of the USA? Or are you speaking of our Government officials? Or is "we" meant to be mankind in General? There is no doubt that the World in general outside of Germany did not know of the Concentration Camps. Whether our Government knew of them I don't know. I am sure some Intelligence types knew but I don't know. Also I am sure our Government knew of his goal but too many people did not want to get involved in a War and they tried to persuade our Government not to get involved. So the general public probably did not know his goals. I have no idea when all this first became known. Some people knew of it. FDR bravely tried to circumvent Congress to aid Britian and later Russia. So he must have known what was going on. But I am sure the general public did not know. I personally did not learn just how Evil Hitler was until I wrote a paper at the Naval War College on the Battle of Stalingard. That would have been in the early 1970s and I was about 32 years old. And still even after having studied and researched in an Academic way I still do not completely understand exactly just how Evil that man was. My very normal human psyche just can not phantom the depth of his Evil. The Holocaust was just that.......A Holocaust!! It was not limited to Germany. It spread rapidly all across Europe and Asia. While 2 or 3 million people died in Concentration Camps is terrible Russia lost 16 million people in the 12 years they were involved in WWII. Those numbers just are not comprehensible to those of us who did not live through it. Imagine that........16 million Russians died in WWII and that does not include Poles, Eastern Europeans, Africans, or Asians nor Jewish people or just ordinary Germans who got in the way. You have asked some very deep questions and I hope I have helped. I encourage you to delve into this deeper and learn for yourself. Good luck.

Answer 3

They were big news in the Boer War, fought between the Dutch descended South African farmers and the English. The Boers fought much better than the English army imagined they would, and they had a broad base of popular support in the countryside. Consequently the English army rounded up huge numbers of civilians and penned them in with barbed wire - concentration camps. The Germans thought these were a great idea and put them into practice on a massive scale.

Answer 4

I would suggest looking into British colonial history because as an Englishman, to my shame, we had concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War. The camps held Women and children and I think over 35,000 of them died through starvation. This would be worth your while checking up on.

Answer 5

The British used concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War.

Answer 6

The Nazis adopted the term euphemistically from the British concentration camps of the Second Anglo-Boer War in order to conceal the deadly nature of the camps.

The English term "concentration camp" was first used to describe camps operated by the British in South Africa during the 1899-1902 Second Boer War. Allegedly conceived as a form of humanitarian aid to the families whose farms had been destroyed in the fighting, the camps were used to confine and control large numbers of civilians as part of a Scorched Earth tactic. A report after the war stated that 27,927 Boers (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) and 14,154 black Africans died as a result of diseases developed due to overcrowding, inadequate diets and poor sanitation in the camps.

Use of the word concentration comes from the idea of concentrating a group of people who are in some way undesirable in one place, where they can be watched by those who incarcerated them.

The term concentration camp lost some of its original meaning after Nazi concentration camps were discovered, and has ever since been understood to refer to a place of mistreatment, starvation, forced labour, and murder.

Answer 7

The first time the term concentration camps was used was during the Spanish American War. The Spanish would round up rebellious Cubans and put them into such camps.

Answer 8

Sorry, but I don't really know. Is there something in German? And do you speak Italian? Off the subject, but I had to ask because it said you were the top contributor in Languages. And are your glasses supposed to be like Bono's? I like them!

Answer 9

I know The British used them in the boar war,about 1890's I think,long while since I was at school

Answer 10

hitler read a lot of books so it would be hard to determine what he read that had that term in it - he was actually well read and intelligent - unfortunatly he also had a mental disorder creating a god complex in him -