New Perspectives on the Murder of Unfit Prisoners in Nazi Forced Labour Camps for Jews (Schmelt Camps) and Their Connection to Auschwitz

Selections for sick and unfit prisoners and their murder through lethal injections or in gas chambers were characteristic of Nazi camps like Auschwitz. This article investigates the start of these murders through the lens of a system of forced labour camps for Eastern Upper Silesian Jews, so-called Schmelt camps, that did not form part of the usual concentration camp system. Their independent status gave Schmelt camps more leeway for experimenting with killing methods and they implemented respective policies to liquidate unfit prisoners several months before the concentration camps. However, they were also supervised by SS physicians from Auschwitz and began to send unfit prisoners to the camp's gas chambers from early 1942. In parallel, they developed despicable killing methods, primarily water-induced murders. These events are contextualized within Giorgio Agamben's concept of 'homo sacer.' The paper demonstrates that Fritz Todt, whose Reich Motorway Company utilized Jewish labour for construction work in Silesia, was a driving force behind Himmler's decision to eliminate 'unproductive' prisoners. It shows how civilian camp leaders collaborated in these crimes. Finally, it delineates the transformation of convalescent camps in Schmelt's system from places of recovery for lightly ill prisoners to killing centres and collection points for Auschwitz transports.