Looking into the Abyss: Historians and the Nazi Concentration Camps

Abstract

Nazi concentration camps played a central part in repression, terror and mass murder in the Third Reich. But after the end of the Second World War, historians were initially slow to explore the history of these SS camps. Only in the 1980s did sustained and systematic research get underway. Since then, the scholarly literature has grown at a great pace. This article surveys the historical literature on the camps, focusing on key themes which have emerged from studies published over the last few years: the early camps, the SS perpetrators, gender, memory, and the relationship between economics and extermination. The article critically examines recent studies on these themes and highlights important areas for future research.