Final answer:
The Germans built extermination camps during the Holocaust to systematically and efficiently carry out the genocide of Jews and other groups deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime. These camps were constructed to ease the psychological burden on the soldiers and were designed solely for mass murder, often disposing of new arrivals within two hours through poison gas.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Nazis constructed extermination camps as part of the Holocaust, which was Hitler's plan to eliminate the Jews and other groups he considered undesirable. The SS leadership sought a means of mass murder that was both efficient and less psychologically taxing on the soldiers carrying out the killings. This led to the establishment of extermination camps, which were not like concentration camps whose purpose varied from imprisonment to forced labor.
Extermination camps were built for the sole purpose of mass extermination, often resulting in death for new arrivals within two hours of entry through the use of poison gas or other methods. Approximately six such camps existed, located in occupied Poland, designed to be near rail lines and hidden in forests, facilitating the secretive and systematic process of genocide.
Concentration camps, on the other hand, had existed since 1933, serving to incarcerate and subjugate millions through forced labor and other brutal means. However, the extermination camps, including notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau, were built with the intent to function as “death factories,” with special infrastructure such as gas chambers made of concrete and steel designed to kill large numbers of people methodically.
The development of these facilities highlighted the transition from early forms of persecution to industrialized murder, epitomizing the Final Solution—the Nazi policy to systematically exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe and other groups deemed unfit for life under the Nazi regime.