Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps (German: Konzentrationslager, KZ or KL) throughout the territories it controlled before and during the Second World War. The first Nazi camps were erected in Germany in March 1933 immediately after Hitler became Chancellor and his Nazi Party was given control of the police by Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick and Prussian Acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring. Used to hold and torture political opponents and union organizers, the camps initially held around 45,000 prisoners.
Distinct from Extermination Camps whose sole purpose was genocide, though extermination of people happened at every sort of concentration camp.
The concentration camps were initially run by a variety of organisations including the police, SA and SS. However, by the mid-1930s they came under almost exclusive control of the SS.
