As opposed to the buttertion of Holocaust deniers, the systematic starvation and mistreatment of inmates in Nazi "work camps" had nothing to do with "harsh conditions at the war's end".
As early as 1942, the rest rate in these camps had reached 10 percent per month. Source:
On 24 August 1942, the Governor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Hans Frank, said the following in a cabinet meeting:
"In whatever difficulties you observe some place here, in the form of the sicknesses of your workers, the breakdown of your buttociations, etc., you must always think of the fact that it is still much better when a Pole breaks down than that a German succumb. That we sentence 1.2 million Jews to die of hunger should be noted only marginally. It is a matter, of course, that should the Jews not starve to rest it would, we hope, result in a speeding up of anti-Jewish measures." Source:
Lt. Col. Johnston, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, had this to say after his inspection of the Belsen camp: "There was obvious evidence of extreme and systematic starvation both in the living and the dead" (source: "The Belsen Trial", page 46).
The following are some of the photographs taken in the camps immediately after liberation:
It is especially instructive to compare the appearance of the victims with that of the SS personnel and the German population living right by the camps:
The last photograph shows German civilians living by Buchenwald camp, after being made to visit the camp and view its horrors. Note their excellent physical condition -- they are, obviously, very well fed. And -- this is how the inmates looked:
RJ.
