FAQs

From four original camps in Germany grew a system of thousands of different camps and sub-camps, within which more than two million men, women and children toiled. People of all nationalities, races, faiths and ideologies deemed enemies by the Nazis were forced to enter this vast system. Nearly half were murdered or died as a result of the appalling conditions.

At most camps, prisoners were subjected to hard labour, starvation, and harsh punishments, and the death rate was very high. These included labour camps as well as concentration camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. Vernichtungslager, or extermination camps, existed only to kill people, 98 per cent of them Jews.

Some 4,500,000 Soviet prisoners of war were held in makeshift camps, often nothing more than open-air enclosures where prisoners were left to starve or freeze to death.

The Unspeakable exhibition and website serve as an opportunity to see together the very different artistic perspectives encompassed in the Imperial War Museum's collection of art relating to the Nazi persecution of the Jews of Europe.

The information in the FAQ pages contextualises some of the experiences portrayed within the artworks, but is not by any means a complete historical account of the events which occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe.

For more information, please visit the website for Imperial War Museum London's The Holocaust Exhibition, where you can find information about the exhibition, survivors' testimonies and a list of links for further enquiry.