Final answer:
Nazi officials used various methods to deal with prisoners, including labor exploitation, mass deportations, and systematic murder, ultimately culminating in the Final Solution, which led to genocide in concentration camps like Bergen-Belsen.
Step-by-step explanation:
Nazi officials planned several methods to deal with the prisoners in Bergen-Belsen and other concentration camps throughout the Holocaust. Initially, they considered mass deportations to remote locations like Madagascar, labor exploitation, and forced starvation.
Early on, strategies such as mobile killing units and gas vans were employed. In the concentration camps, various forms of systematic murder were implemented, including the use of the pesticide Zyklon B in gas chamber executions. By 1942, the Wannsee Conference solidified the Final Solution, a directive that committed to the genocide of Jewish people through work-to-death policies, starvation, and gas chamber killings.
The concentration camps, while being hubs for forced labor, became increasingly centered on the systematic extermination of Jews and other groups deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime. These camps evolved into facilities boasting the infrastructure for mass murder, with Bergen-Belsen later being known for its horrific conditions leading to the death of tens of thousands through starvation and disease before its liberation.